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THE SISTER'S SON IN THE 
MEDIEVAL GERMAN EPIC 

A STUDY IN THE SURVIVAL OF MATRILINY 



BY 

CLAIR HAYDEN BELL 



University of California Publications in Modern Philology 
Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 67-182 



UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS 
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1922 



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t 




THE SISTER'S SON IN THE 
MEDIEVAL GERMAN EPIC 



BY 

CLAIR HAYDEN BELL 



University of California Publications in Modern Philology 
Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 67-182 



Issued October 7, 1922 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS t 

RECEIVED 

OCT 171922 J 

DOCUMENTS D1V13IO. 



PREFACE 

We are familiar enough with the law of inertia in the realm 
of matter, but its equally general operation in the realm of the 
spirit is far less obvious. Yet there are many habits of thought 
and speech today which are nothing but survivals of the past 
by the law of inertia — practices carried into the present long 
after their origin has been forgotten and the reason for them has 
ceased to exist. The archaeologist, guided by material relics of 
the past, is able to trace fairly accurately the course of the phys- 
ical life of primitive man ; the student of philology, folklore, and 
literature comes to his assistance with a mass of evidence bearing 
inferentially upon the intellectual and emotional side of prehis- 
toric life. This evidence consists mainly in survivals from earlier 
periods: words and expressions, ideas and beliefs, manners, cus- 
toms, and institutions which have come to seem anomalous and 
irrational because they are no longer in keeping with the times, 
and from which we can draw valuable conclusions as to the 
earlier conditions that gave rise to them. 

One of the most curious anomalies in the medieval German 
epic is the closeness of the relation between uncle and nephew, 
and particularly the fact that it has to do mainly with the mater- 
nal uncle, and only infrequently with the paternal. Because 
of its constant recurrence in the medieval German epic, the uncle- 
nephew relationship would justify consideration merely as a 
study of an important literary motif. When, however, it is 
realized that the subject is one of historical and sociological sig- 
nificance its study appears all the more justified. The following 
pages present gleanings from medieval German narrative poetry 
in a search for evidence which may throw light upon the struc- 
ture of society in prehistoric days. 

The subject of the Sister's Son has already received consid- 
erable attention in different fields. 1 The Middle High German 

i Cf . Francis B. Gummere: The Sister's Son in the English and Scottish 
Popular Ballads, in: An Eng. Miscellany, Oxford, 1901, 133-149; William 
A. Nitze: The Sister's Son and the Conte del Graal, Mod. Philol., Jan., 1912, 
IX, No. 3; W. O. Farnsworth: Uncle and Nephew in the Old French Chan- 
sons de Geste, Columbia Univ. Press, N. Y., 1913. 



field, however, has not yet been thoroughly and systematically 
explored. 2 

An alphabetical list of the epics read in this investigation, 
including the longer narrative poems of secular literature up to 
the beginning of the 14th century, will be found appended, 
although by no means all of these furnish illustration. Relig- 
ious epics, with few exceptions, have been omitted. A list of 
general works consulted is dispensed with ; such bibliographies 
are available elsewhere. 

The writer desires to express his appreciation to Professor 
Hugo K. Schilling, who awakened his interest in the topic, and 
to whose generous help and criticism he owes the completion of 
the following pages. 

Clair Hayden Bell. 

University of California, 

Berkeley, January, 1920. 

- In the Germanic field the earliest reaches have been well covered by 
Lothar von Dargun: MutterrecM und Raubehe, Breslau, 1883. A mono- 
graph upon this subject in the same field has recently been written by 
Albert W. Aron: Traces of Matriarchy in Germanic Hero-Lore, Univ. of 
Wis. Studies in Lang, and Lit., Madison, 1920. This publication, which 
is limited to the heroic or national epic, appeared from the press after the 
present study had been completed. 



THE SISTER'S SON" IN THE MEDIEVAL 
GERMAN EPIC 



A STUDY IN THE SURVIVAL OF MATRILINY 

BY 

CLAIE HAYDEN BELL 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 



Preface 65 

I. Kinship in the Medieval German Epic 67 

The Father 79 

Brother and Sister 85 

The Mother 89 

Position of the Teuton "Woman 100 

II. Uncle and Nephew 105 

III. Historical Evidence and the Viewpoint of Philology 164 

IV. Conclusion 171 

Appendix: Bibliography of Medieval German Epical Poems.- 171 



I. KINSHIP IN THE MEDIEVAL GERMAN EPIC 

Matriliny 1 is a phenomenon well known to sociologists. By 
the matrilineal family is meant that form of family organization 
in which the kinship is traced and determined through the mother, 
the children being regarded as the relatives, and frequently as 
the heirs, of the mother and the maternal relatives. The hus- 
band's position is relatively unimportant. His adherence to his 

1 In the words of W. I. Thomas (Sex and Society, Chicago, 1906, 66), 
matriliny is the form of organization based 1 ' on the larger social fact, 
including the biological one, that the bond between mother and child is 
the closest in Nature." The term ' mother-right ' (and similarly 'father- 
right,' 'nephew-right'), from the German Mutterrecht, is in common use. 
It is a faulty term, both because the English is not a proper equivalent 
of the German and because there were no rights, in the juridical sense, at 
the period of time for which the term is used. The term ' matriarchy ' is 
best reserved to indicate female supremacy over all males within the 
family group; indeed, it is sometimes used to indicate the supremacy of 
the female in the government of the clan or tribe as well — a form of 
social organization in which the social tendencies at work in matriliny 
have been developed to their fullest possible extent. Matriarchy is a rare 
phenomenon in ethnology. 



68 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol.10 

own brothers and sisters is closer than to his wife and her pro- 
geny. In the matrilineal family group the eldest maternal 
brother exercises the duties of a father to the children. Matri- 
lineal peoples are still found scattered well over the surface of 
the earth, while with many other peoples plain survivals of a 
previous matrilineal state have been found. The most tenacious 
and therefore the most common of these survivals is the peculiar 
closeness of the relation between the brother and his sister's 
children. 

Since traces of a previous state of matriliny have also been 
found in Europe; the degree of prominence which the uncle- 
nephew tie holds in the medieval German epic becomes a matter 
of interest, as well as the question as to whether the epics cast 
any light upon the origin of this motif. And although objection 
might be raised to the late date at which the Middle High Ger- 
man literature was recorded, it is important for our purposes 
that the forming and recording of these epic plots took place 
for the most part prior to the breaking up of the kinship ties. 

Perhaps the most interesting and significant difference be- 
tween medieval and modern literature is that of the differing 
social structures which these literatures reflect. Present-day 
literature deals with the individual and his problems. To us, 
the tie of blood is not of predominant importance. Our average 
families no longer cluster in kin groups about a family home- 
stead or in a family town. The means of transportation have 
brought about a fluidity of population unknown to the previous 
generation, and every individual is free to follow the trail of 
his own interests to the locality which calls him. As soon as the 
age of economic independence or of marriage is reached, brothers 
and sisters often scatter to remote points, there to found new 
families in turn. Beyond our social unit of husband and. wife 
and dependent children there is friendly interest of varying 
strength, but little coherence in larger kin groups. 2 

2 A greater degree of kinship solidarity still survives in the Teutonic 
countries of Europe than in America with its fluid population. The strong- 
est survival of the old kin ties which we have in this country is to be 
found among the isolated mountaineers of Kentucky and Tennessee, who 
still adhere to the principle of clan solidarity and practice blood revenge. 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son m the Medieval German Epic 69 

Fundamentally different is the structure of society as reflected 
in our earliest English and German literatures. If the litera- 
ture of today deals mainly with the individual, the typical medi- 
eval German epic is the epic of the kin, the large, closely adher- 
ing group of blood relatives. This is impressively shown by the 
extensive genealogical tables which can be drawn up for many 
of the medieval epics, illustrative of the kin ties that the plots 
of these poems involve. In those days, the rights and interests 
of the kin surmounted those of the individual. The individual 
standing alone was lost; only those with strong family connec- 
tions were safe and protected. In primitive days peace, friend- 
ship, and relationship were almost identical conceptions. Who- 
ever was foreign to a group was hostile to it; the stranger was 
without protection and without rights. The very history of some 
of our present-day words illustrates this fact. The transition 
in viewpoint to be seen in Latin hostis, meaning 'stranger,' 
'enemy,' and German Gast, English 'guest,' is instructive in 
this sense. In the epic Demantin we are told, when Gander 
meets his son without either knowing the identity of the other : 

4870 einen gast he halden sach 

des he nicht hette irkant. 
dar wordin ros mit sporn gemant 
zesamene worden si getreben. 
di sper dorch di schilde bleben 
gestochin uf or beider brust. 

With the change in human relations the meaning of the word 
as stranger in an unfriendly sense passed into that of stranger 
in a friendly sense. 

Of citations from our epics in which the word Freund is used 
with the meaning 'relative,' any number could be given. In 
Eilhart's Tristan, for instance, the hero has the enmity of his 
cousin Antret: 

3160 he was des koninges swestir son 

und solde Tristrandes nebe sin. 
der tufil senke in in den Rin! 
wan, swie he was sin frunt, 
fruntschaft tet he im nicht kunt. 



70 University of California Publications in Modem Philology [Vol. 10 

Dietrich declares in the Biterolf, explaining why he had assisted 
his neve in warfare against Gunther ■ 

12514 .... daz dicke geschiht 

daz friunt friunde gestat: 
er ist saelic der in hat 
so ez im gat an die not. 

Even today the German words Freund, Freundschaft (dialecti- 
cally), and Slavic prijatali are used in the sense of relative, rela- 
tionship, kin. 

To picture man's complete helplessness at the end of the 
world on the last day of judgment the Muspilli of the 9th cen- 
tury declares that on that day no kin can help one another : 

57 dar ni mac denne mak andremo helfan vora demo muspille. 

Writing in the same period, the author of the Heliand reinforces 
the scriptural injunction concerning the plucking out of the 
offending eye and the cutting off of the offending hand in terms 
more intelligible and more telling to the Teutonic mind. 3 Better 
to cast thy relative far from thee, he says, however close the 
kinship may be, than to be led into sin by him : 

1496 .... betera is imu than odar, 

that he thana friund fan imu fer faruuerpa, 

mithe thes mages endi ni hebbea thar eniga minnea to, 

that he moti eno up gestigan 

ho himilriki, than sie helligethuing, 

bred baluuuiti bedea gisokean, 

ubil arbidi. 4 

Banishment from home was the most grievous misfortune which 
could befall our Germanic ancestors. Of this the phrase, v on 
sinen mag en entrunnen, meaning 'fled from one's country,' our 
word 'wretch,' a miserable creature (from wreak; 0. S. wrecan, 
'to drive into exile'; Goth, wrikan, 'to persecute'; Ger. rachen, 
'to avenge'), and the Ger. elend, 'miserable' (from 0. H. G. eli- 
lenti, 'in a foreign country,' 'homeless'), are lingering reminders. 

s Cf . Vilmar: Deutsche Altertiimer im Heliand, Marburg, 1845, 42. 
4 Ed. by Sievers, Halle, 1878. 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 71 

Drawing a picture of chaotic internal warfare among the 
Germans, the Annolied states that the people killed their own 
neven and thrust the sword into their own bowels ; and the Edda 
describes the complete collapse of civilization and the destruction 
of all order in terms of the violation of relationship ties by 
brothers' and sisters' sons: 

Vohispo', 45 Br0'J?r munu berjask ok at bonum ver]?ask, 
munu systrungar sifjum spilla. 

The first thing that the hero of the popular medieval epic 
did, upon encountering a stranger, was to ascertain, if possible, 
the ancestry or kinship of his opponent; only when he learned 
this did he know with whom and with what force he had to deal. 5 
This is by no means limited to our G-ermanic civilization ; it was 
the Homeric custom, and is practiced by primitive tribes extant 
today. 6 Through the cycles of development from wild savagery 
and barbarity to constantly higher forms, kinship was the sole 
social bond, and it retained a measure of potency until long after 
a new and higher principle — that of the state — came into being. 
The beginning of the state marks the beginning of the decline 
of clan organization. Before the existence of the state the adher- 
ence of the members of the kin group, on the principle of one 
for all and all for one, was absolutely essential, for the protection 
not only of property but of life as well. If property was to be 
defended, if an inroad was to be avenged, if an attack was to be 
carried out, or an abducted member regained, all branches of the 
family were called upon for help. Every injury to a kinsman 
imposed upon the entire kin the sacred duty of revenge. 7 And 
similarly the entire kin answered for the misdeeds of a single 
member. At the time of our medieval epics the law itself held 
them jointly guilty if not equally liable to penalty. The aveng- 

5 Cf. Gud., 123, 4; Hartung: Deutsche Altertumer des NL. und des Gud., 
Gothen, 1894, 29. 

s See, for instance, Miiller-Lyer, Formen der Ehe, Mimchen, 1911, 80, 
on the Australian tribes. 

' Cf. Freybe, Altdeutsches Leoen, Giitersloh, 1878, on Die Sippe und die 
Blutrache, 219 ff. 



72 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



ing of relatives was an impelling motive which the lapse of years 
did not impair. As the Krone remarks: 

18836 Ein alt sprichwort giht: 

Alt schult lit unci rostet xiiht. 

Thus, although twenty-six years pass before Kriemhilde sees her 
way to revenge, 8 her purpose does not waver ; and Hilde, in the 
Gudrun, waits for thirteen years until the maturing of a new 
generation of warriors enables her to avenge the abduction of 
her daughter and the slaying of her husband. 

As we shall consider elsewhere, 9 the original essence of the 
plot of the Parzivdl was probably the idea of duty to one's kin 
and of punishment involved in the violation of that duty. Par- 
zival's maternal uncle points out to him his great guilt in the 
slaying of his blood relative Ither, and in leaving his mother to 
die of sorrow: 

IX, 1279 do sprach er "lieber swester sun, 

waz rates moht' ich dir nu tuon? 
du hast din eigen verch erslagen. 
wiltu fur got die schulde tragen, 
sit daz ir bede wart ein bluot, 
ob got da reht gerihte tuot, 

so giltet im din eigen leben. 

****** 

min swester lac ouch nach dir tot, 
Herzeloyd din muoter. ' ' 10 

Because of the importance of the blood tie, the epics abound 
in passages which emphasize relation through common ancestry, 
and no matter what the relationship is, its discovery is a source 
of joy and becomes at once the basis of solidarity. The emphasis 
is usually on common blood through the womb, as : 

J. Tit., 924, 4 "Bedenke daz unser muoter beide 

ein wip von reiner art gebere. ' ' 

Artificial relationship is frequently established in the epics 
through Blufbruderschaft. Entrance upon the latter relation- 
al,. H42, 2, and 1390, 4. 

9 Cf. below, p. 141. 

10 Cf. Krone, 29497 ft, which attributes ParzivaFs failure to a violation 
of the blood tie. 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 73 

ship was solemnized by a symbolical mixing of the blood. Such 
a tie exists between Hagen and Walther in the Waltharilied, and 
it is only the slaying of his sister's son by Walther that impels 
Hagen to break the sacred bond. 

Another type of artificial relationship is fosterage. Foster- 
age is the sending of a child to another household for his rearing 
and education. This custom was practiced not only among the 
higher classes in Germany but was still more prevalent in north- 
ern and northwestern Europe. A child in fosterage was reared 
and educated suitably for the position which it was to occupy 
in life, and the affection which arose from the relationship was 
very strong. 11 The closeness of the fosterage tie is well expressed 
in the epic Garel, when the hero Garel bids farewell to his foster 
parents Artus and Guinever: 

19756 " Artus, der liebe herre min, 

hat so wol an mir getan, 
daz ich vil guoten willen han, 
daz im min dienest ist bereit. 
er hat mit grozer wirdicheit 
mich von kinde her gezogen, 
an werder fuore niht betrogen; 
da, von han ich reht dar zuo, 
daz ich spate unde vruo 
iwer beider ere werben sol. 
vrowe, ir habt an mir so wol 
getan daz ich billich 
iwer er sol werben; wan daz ich 
uf er allererste muot gewan, 
daz kom von iu; ich enkan 
die triwe verdienen nimmer, 
und solt ich leben immer, 
die ir habt an mich geleit. 
ich sol durch iwer wirdicheit, 
die wil und ich min leben han, 
iu dienen" sprach der werde man. 

In the German epic the boy is sent usually to the relatives 
of his mother, preferably to a maternal uncle. A typical example 
is seen in Etzel's desire to have his son Ortlieb by Kriemhilde 

ii Cf. Grupp, Kultur der alten Kelt en mid Germanen, Miinchen, 1905, 
123 If., 231; Joyce, Social History of Ancient Ireland, London, 1907, II, 17. 



74 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



reared by the latter 's brothers. He says to them, when the boy 
is brought to the table : 

1914,3 "nu seht ir, friunde mine, diz ist mm einec sun, 

und ouch iuwer swester: daz mac iu alien wesen frum. 

Gevaeht er nach dem kiinne, er wirt ein kiiene man, 

rich und vil edele, stare und wol getan. 

leb' ich deheine wile, ich gib' im zwelf lant: 

so mag iu wol gedienen des jungen Ortliebes hant. 

Dar umbe bite ich gerne iuch, lieben friunde min, 

swenn' ir ze lande ritet, wider an den Ein, 

so suit ir mit iu fiieren iuwer swester sun, 

und suit ouch an dem kinde vil genaedecliche tuon. 

Und ziehet in zen eren, unz er werde ze man. 

hat iu in den landen iemen iht getan, 

daz hilf et er iu rechen, gewahset im sin lip. ' ' 

In this same epic the niece Herrat is fostered by her aunt Helche, 
her mother's sister. 

Several cases of fosterage are mentioned in the Gudrun. 
Hetel, who is reared by his relative Wate (204, 3 ff.), sends his 
own son to Wate to be reared by him (574 ff.). And of the 
heroine Gudrun we are told : 

575 von Hegelinge lant sant' er s 'ze Tenemarke, 

durch zuht ir naehsten magen. 

In Alphart's Tod the two brothers "Wolf hart and Alphart are 
reared by their maternal uncle. Frau Uote, joining Hildebrand 
in the vain attempt to restrain Alphart from his dangerous out- 
post duty, reminds him of his long fosterage by them (104, 3; 
174, 2 ff.). Similarly in Rosengarten D, although the father 
Amelot is alive and near at hand, the two sons Wolfhart and 
Sigestap are fostered by their uncle Hildebrant and accompany 
him on his adventures (81 ff.). Riideger and Gotelind, in this 
same epic, have a sister's son in fosterage (87, 4 ff.). 

In the Rolandsliet (1482), in Karl der Grosse (2083 ff.), and 
in Karl Meinet (441, 71 ff.) reference is made to the fosterage 
of Roland by his maternal uncle Karl, and Alda and her brother 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 75 

Oliver have their home with their maternal uncle Gerhart {Karl. 
31., 500, 29 ff., 65 ff.). Tirrih, or Dietrich, who in these epics 
takes upon himself the combat against Genelun 's nephew Pinabel, 
is a neve and a protege of Roland's by fosterage (Bol. 8823). 

In the Parzivdl Condwiramurs and Kardeis are reared by 
their paternal uncle (XVI, 543 ff.), an d Sigune by her maternal 
aunt (III, 759 ff. ; IX, 1322 ff.). Ither, Utepandragun's sister's 
son, is fostered by his uncle (III, 877 ff.), and Gawan refers 
several times to his fosterage by his maternal uncle Artus (X, 
769; XIII, 1047; XIII, 1220). 

In the Titurel, "Kiotes kint Sigune alsus wuohs bi ir muo- 
men" (32, 1), and Gahmuret rears his mother's sister's son 
Schionatulander ( Tit., 47, 1 ; J. Tit., 676, 1). "When dying, Gah- 
muret reminds Schionatulander of this long fosterage in adjuring 
him to care for his wife {Tit., 139, 1 ; J. Tit., 925, 1). 

Similarly, in all the epics of the Arthurian cycle, we find 
various sisters' sons in the fosterage of King Artus. 

In Tristan und Isolde not only is Tristan fostered by his 
uncle, King Marke, but also two other sisters' sons, Andret and 
Tantrisel. In Partcmopier und Meliur, the young nephew Par- 
tonopier is reared from early childhood by his maternal uncle, 
King Clogiers (256 ff.), and in Heinrich und Kunigunde the 
maternal aunt, Kunigunde, fosters her sister 's daughter from the 
time the child is weaned (3577 ff.). 

In Ulrich's Willehalm, when Willehalm and Kyburg part from 
Emperor Loys and his wife ( Willehalm 's sister), Kyburg suc- 
cessfully asks for the privilege of taking along her husband's 
nephew and niece, saying to the mother : 

CCCXVI, 2 ' ( Min siieziu f rouwe, ich ger, daz ich 
in urloub mit mir fiiere hin 
Alyzen, die jungen keiserin, 
und Fivianzen den klaren. 
daz leben von minen jaren 
wil ich in liebe mit in vertuon. 
und gebent uns die heiden suon, 
so ziuch ich si alse miniu kint 
durch die liebe, daz si sint 
von des markgraven (Willehalms) sippe komen. 



76 



University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



Chivalry made much of the practice of fosterage and contrib- 
uted a new incentive for it: the father's desire to have his son 
trained by a knight of particular prominence. The custom itself 
is of much earlier origin. Anwyl suggests that it was connected 
with some primitive taboo which forbade the father to see his 
children until they had reached a certain age. 12 Gwynn infers : 13 
"Whatever the origin of fosterage may have been, the evidence 
here collected indicates that it is most likely to develop and 
assume importance in a disturbed and unorganized condition of 
society, where the individual, not being able to rely upon a cen- 
tral authority or on a corporate social instinct, is led to seek 
security by laying great stress on family ties." For our theory 
it is interesting to note that in Scandinavia, the portion of Ger- 
manic territory most removed from Roman influence and thought 
by some to have been the cradle of the Germanic race, the custom 
of fosterage attained its. widest diffusion, 14 the very term foster- 
age (fostr) coming from a word that is peculiar to Scandinavian 
speech. Although with the passage of time fosterage came to 
be carried on for purely commercial reasons, there is strong 
reason to believe that in early times it was undertaken only by 
persons who stood in a certain degree of consanguinity to the 
parents. We have seen that in the German epic it is most fre- 
quently uncle and nephew who stand in this relationship. 15 Fos- 
terage is clearly not the primitive form of child rearing practiced 
in the matrilineal period, since it involves separation from the 
mother. In all probability it originated in the transitional stage 
from matriliny to patriliny. Where matriliny prevails, the chil- 
dren belong to the mother and her kin rather than to the father 
and the paternal kin. As matriliny yields to patriliny many of 
the customs and viewpoints of the former social organization 

12 Enc. Religion and Ethics, VI, 109. is ibid. 

1 4 Its prevalence is not only attested by examples met in every Norse 
and Icelandic saga, but also by the native codes, which legislated specially 
for this relationship. Cf. GuSmundsson und Kalund, in Paul: Grundriss 
der Germ. Phil., Ill, 415 ff. 

15 This has not escaped the observation of other writers. Cf . Chadwick, 
Orig. of Eng. Nation, Cambridge, 1907, 334; Weinhold, Die d. Frauen, 3. 
Aufl., Wien, 1897, I, 93; Farnsworth, op. cit., 47. 



1922] Bell: The Sister's San in the Medieval German Epic 77 



linger on. The idea of the child's belonging to the maternal kin 
gives way but slowly. The mother, desiring to maintain the 
older and stronger ties to her own people, resorts to the device 
of having her children fostered by her kin. 16 Without doubt 
fosterage was a social event of great tenacity, strengthening kin- 
ship bonds and solidifying the tribal system. 17 

The German epics return repeatedly to the theme of the 
inherent and instinctive attraction of kin for kin. So powerful 
was the tie of blood relationship felt to be that it was supposed 
to assert itself inevitably even in those who were unaware of 
their common descent. A society which considered the members 
of the kindred group as members of a single organic body quite 
naturally entertained the view that blood is potent to find its 
way to blood. 18 

With regard to the terms used to denote the various kinds 
and degrees of relationship, the significant difference between 
those of today and those of the middle ages lies in the now aban- 
doned distinction between maternal and paternal relatives. The 
word for the mother's brother was in Latin avunculus, in Ger- 
man oheim; for the father's brother, Lat. patruus, Ger. Vetter 
(now meaning 'cousin') ; for the mother's sister, Lat. matertera, 
Ger. Muhme; for the father's sister, Lat. amita, Ger. Base. For 
the children of a brother or sister there were originally no special 
terms in Latin, the circumlocutions fratris filius, soraris filius 
being used, until the words nepos, neptis, originally meaning 
' grandchildren, ' took on these meanings. Similarly, in Germanic, 
together with the expressions sw ester suon, sw ester tohter, bruo- 
der tohter, we find the terms neve and niftel, which have the pre- 
dominant meaning of sister 's son or daughter. 19 

16 By way of illustration it may be noted that in the Dutch portion of 
New Guinea a boy belongs to his mother's tribe and wears its distinctive 
dress, even when he lives with his father's people; and in some of the 
Arab tribes of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan the wife returns to her own home 
for the birth of every child. Enc. B. and E., VIII, 429. 

it Tbid. t VI, 108; Weinhold, Altnord. Leben, Berlin, 1856, 285. 

is Cf. the writer's: "The Call of the Blood in the Mediaeval Ger. 
Epic," Mod. Lang. Notes, XXXVII, Jan., 1922, 17 ff. 

is For the etymology of these terms see Kluge: Etymologisches Worter- 
buch, and for a complete discussion of Indo-European relationship terms 



78 



University of California Publications in Modem Philology [Vol. 10 



With all these terms, what may be called their reciprocal use 
was quite common. It often occurs in the epics that the mother 's 
brother, addressed as " oheim" by his nephew, uses the honoring 
title in return address; or the nephew, addressed as "neve" by 
his uncle, uses the same address in return ; so that oheim and neve 
may mean either ' uncle' or 'nephew,' muhme and niftel either 
'aunt' or 'niece.' 20 There are also occasions when these terms 
are used as complimentary titles of people who bear no blood 
relationship to the speaker, and even more frequently they are 
used in the sense of a distant relative in general. In a very 
large number of cases we have no evidence at all wherewith to 
prove the precise sense in which the term is used, and there has 
been a great deal of carelessness on the part of editors of the 
various epics in the offhand use of the modern forms of the 
medieval relationship terms regardless of the changes in mean- 
ing. 21 The difficulty in determining the exact meaning of the 
relationship term in specific instances is often insuperable, not 
only because the epic frequently fails to make its usage clear 
but also because the tradition of relationship varies greatly in the 
different epics employing the same characters. Far more trou- 
blesome still is the fact that not infrequently we find inconsistent 
usage of a relationship term within one and the same epic. 22 



see Delbriick: Indogerm. Verwandtschaftsnamen, in: Abhandlimgen der 
philologisch-historischen Classe der Koniglich-sachsisehen Gesellschaft der 
Wissenschaften, XI, 379, Leipzig, 1890, and Wallis: Indogerm. Relationship 
Terms as Historical Evidence, Amer. Anthrop., 1918, 419 ft". 

2 The reciprocal use of a relationship term rests, of course, upon 
analogy. The Uemantin even contains a passage in which an uncle refers 
to his niece as ohem (1387). 

21 Thus Walz, ed. of the Gar el, calls Artus and Garel Oheim and Neffe 
when they are apparently but second cousins; and he translates neve as 
applied to Klaris by Neffe, when Klaris is but a cousin by marriage. 

22 Inconsistency within an epic even with regard to the name of one 
and the same character is illustrated by the, Karlmeinet, where one char- 
acter is variously called: Fuekelmet, Enquelmet, Volquin, and Fuckas; 
and another: Elemant, Elinant, Elinas and Elmant. In the Gdrel Amelot 
is designated as Ekunaver's vetern barn (13701), neve (14590), and veter 
(16896). It is a confusion of similar nature but of greater degree when 
we find Loki fighting Logi in the prose Edda, the recorder of that legend 
failing to perceive the identity of the two; and when we find Gawein and 
Walwan, who are in fact one and the same person, standing side by side 
as knights of the Grail in Lohengrin (ed. by H. Eiickert, Quedlinburg and 
Leipzig, 1858, 531, 541). 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 79 

Nor is this at all surprising when we consider how the various 
legends and the epics which grew from them were handed down 
for centuries by word of mouth alone, and how intricate and 
multifarious the relationships in an epic plot usually are. It 
must further be borne in mind that in the period when these 
epics were recorded in their present form the most significant 
thing to the author was the mere fact of relationship in general. 
Wherever and in whatever degree such relationship existed or 
was detected, it effected harmony, support, cohesion. Accuracy 
of designation seemed, therefore, of secondary importance ; all 
too frequently for us, the poet was able to meet the necessity of 
the case by the use of the indefinite word 'mag. 1 These consid- 
erations all add to the difficulties of the present study. But the 
important facts which we note in the study of relationships in 
the epics are these : that of all relationships those through the 
mother predominate, the tie between the uncle and his sister's 
son being the most emphasized and exalted of all; and that of 
the two terms meaning 'uncle,' the word Okeim, meaning the 
'mother's brother,' finally prevails for both the maternal and the 
paternal uncle, a process in which we see the working of the 
same matrilineal tendency that has left numerous other imprints 
upon the German language. 23 

THE FATHER 

The proper appreciation of the relation which the uncle bears 
to his nephew in the epic involves a scrutiny of the other human 
relationships. These will be briefly considered here, while the 
uncle and nephew, as the phase of kinship which has our central 
interest, will be treated in a separate chapter. What traces, if 
any, does the epic reveal with respect to the status of the primi- 
tive father? 24 

23 Cf. below, 97-100. 

24 Cf. Kohler, Zeitschr. fur vergl. Rechtsivissenschaft, IV, 1883, 266 
(the italics are his): "Dass bei fast alien Volkern in einem bestimmten 
Stadium der Entwickelung die Vaterschaft unberiicksichtigt bleibt und 
nur das Verhaltnis des Kindes zur Mutter und zu denen, welche mit ihm 
aus demselben Mutterschosse stammen, in seiner sittlichen und rechtlichen 
Bedeutung anerkannt wird, ist ein unzweif 'elh-after Satz der ethnologischen 



80 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 

The Germanic father was a despot. He held power of life 
and death over his family, and many traces of his sternness 
linger in the epic. This is especially observable in his treatment 
of his wife, 25 and, in lesser degree, of his daughter. Farnsworth, 
in his study of kin relations in the Old French epic, finds the 
father stern and cruel toward his sons, exercising his patria 
potestas with a heavy fist. 26 There is indeed noticeable in the 
German epics a sternness of the father as compared with the 
gentleness of the mother such as flows naturally and inevitably 
from the difference in sex characteristics. But the German epics 
• do not reveal anything comparable to the cruelty, injustice, and 
hostility of the father to the son which Farnsworth finds in the 
Old French chansons. On the contrary, where the father ap- 
pears in connection with his sons he is generally united with 
them by the bond of affection, lending them support, fighting 
beside them shoulder to shoulder, avenging them and being 
avenged by them, passing on his heritage to them, and evincing 
all the emotions that would be expected of a father. At the 
same time, however, there is a very pronounced tendency in 
many of the epics to relegate the father to a position of minor 
importance or to ignore him altogether, 27 and to emphasize and 
glorify instead another relationship, that between the maternal 
uncle and his nephew. Apart from the epics in which the absence 
of the father is naturally accounted for by his death, there are 
others in which he receives no mention whatever; others again 
in which he is alluded to, but left entirely in the background; 
and still others where he appears recurrently (as in the matri- 

Jurisprudenz. Gewohnlich geht erst einer spateren Periode die Idee der 
Vaterschaft auf, und mit ihr die Idee der vaterlichen Verwandtschaft 
sammt alien jenen Folgerungen, welche unser modernes Familienleben 
charakterisieren; und aueh dann bleiben nicht selten iiberreste friiherer 
Anschauungen im Leben des Volkes, wie im Leben der Sage zuriick, welche 
unverstanden bleiben solange man sie nicht als die letzten Eesiduen 
f riiherer machtiger organischer Bildungsgesetze erkannt. ' ' 

25 Cf. NL., 862 f.; 894 f.; Ort. A, 372 ff.; Erec, 6521 ff.; Pars., V, 1218 ff. 

26 Op. cit., 21 ff. 

27 In this respect the results of our observation agree rather with W. 
M. Hart in his study of human relationships in the Old English ballad 
(Harvard Studies in Philol. and Lit., XI, 1907), where he finds the father 
conspicuous by his absence. 



1922] 



Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 



81 



local marriages described below) — a primitive tendency which 
was revived by the roving, adventurous life of chivalry. This 
frequent " death, " entire omission, or slighting of the father 
seems explainable largely by the unsettled conditions of the 
middle ages. Warfare kept him much away from home and 
often resulted in his early death. The mother's brothers would 
then occupy the foreground as the only remaining protectors. 
But the cases in which the father is ignored when alive, the com- 
parative prominence of the mother and her kin, and the over- 
shadowing prominence of the avuncular bond seem to justify 
the suggestion that unconscious social tendencies, lingering from 
the matrilineal period in which the male was but loosely attached 
to his wife and children, may have had some force in determin- 
ing the father's relatively unimportant position in the epic. 

In the Ruodlieb no reference whatever is made to the hero's 
father, and in the home where Ruodlieb 's nephew finds a bride 
the mother is a "widow." The father of the royal Burgundian 
family in the Nibelungenlied is dead. In the Ortnit the refer- 
ence is always to the mother and her brother. Although the 
father is living, 28 the position which we would have expected him 
to fill is occupied by the maternal uncle Ylias, to whom the 
nephew declares: 

55,2 "ich wil dich ze vater kiesen: 

du bist der vater min ! ' ' 

In the Gudrun we are told that Horant is the sister's son of 
Wate and of Hetel, but to his father no allusion is made. In 
Alphart's Tod the hero is in the fosterage of his maternal uncle 
Hildebrand. In those critical situations where the father would 
naturally appear — at the time of the vain attempt to restrain 
Alphart from his fatal undertaking, and at his departure — no 
allusion is made to him. Other poems name Amelolt, Hilde- 
brand 's brother-in-law, as the father, but in this epic Amelolt 
appears only in the spurious stanzas and without any indication 

28 We may infer from 161 ff. that the mother 's husband was alive. The 
supplying of the dwarf Alberich as OrtnirtrV illicit sire has the appearance 
of an inorganic element. Cf. Amelung: Ort., Introd., XX. 



82 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 

of relationship to Alphart. In the Jiingere Titurel Schionatu- 
lander's father Gurzegrin is named but plays no part. It is the 
mother's kin that are in the foreground. In Mai und Beaflor 
no reference whatever is made to the father of the hero Mai, 
who is living with his mother Eliacha, in close contact with the 
maternal uncle. In the Partonopier the father is nowhere men- 
tioned by name. Only the fresh news of his death late in the 
poem indicates that up to that point he had been alive. 

The prevailing type of marriage described in the epics is patri- 
local, i.e., the woman leaves her kin to live among the relatives 
of her husband. This is well shown in the cases of Kriemhilde 
and Briinhilde in the Nibelungenlied. Kriemhilde 's isolation 
from her own kin in her union with Sifrid is specifically pointed 
out : 

1081, 4 si hete liitzel kiinnes under Sifrides man. (Cf. 1082, 1085.) 

A considerable trace of the opposite type of union is found, how- 
ever, in which the roving male, far removed from his own home 
and kin, marries and lives among the kin of his wife, often gain- 
ing property or even the crown through her hand. These matri- 
local marriages are generally of a temporary character, the hus- 
band either leaving the wife to return periodically, or deserting 
her permanently, usually soon after she has become pregnant. 
The offspring, growing up in the care of the mother, is naturally 
associated with her kin. The Parzivdl furnishes us with an illus- 
tration of the effect of matrilocal marriage upon the life of the 
offspring in Feirefiz and Parzival. They are sons of the same 
father, Gahmuret, but by different matrilocal marriages. Fei- 
refiz, son of the heathen queen Belakane, and reared by her 
among her people, is likewise a heathen and swears by the gods 
of his mother and of his heathen land (XV, 433 ff.) ; whereas 
Parzival, reared by Herzeloyde, is, like his mother, a Christian, 
and his life is cast in the mould of her people. 

These matrilocal marriages, however, are found almost wholly 
in the later epics of the period' in which French and Oriental 
influences were strong. For this reason there is doubt as to their 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 83 

value as evidence of earlier social conditions among the Teutons. 
The roving life of chivalry 29 and the crusades would seem to 
furnish adequate explanation of these episodes. On the other 
hand, these motives are common to most early literatures; and 
some of these later epics, with their episodical structure and their 
kinship to the fairy tale, preserve certain primitive traits not to 
be found in the earlier German epics. Chivalry itself seems in 
certain of its phases — in the wandering life of the male, the 
resultant promiscuity, and the high position of woman — to be a 
cyclic recrudescence of primitive social phenomena. Chadwick, 
in his discussion of the prominence of matrilocal marriage in 
North Germanic tradition, 30 indicates the belief that this is an 
old element. Support is lent to this view by the occurrence, in 
some of the epics, of marriages between a woman and the slayer 
of her husband 31 or even of her father, 32 the woman, moreover, 
usually taking the initiative. The fact that the duty of blood 
revenge does not bar these marriages suggests a sporadic sur- 
vival of traditions according to which the marriage relation is 
less close than blood kinship, and the bond between father and 
offspring is but slight. Periodic sex union and the wandering 
of the male are motifs extending back in Germanic literature to 
the period of the myth. 

In close logical connection with these matrilocal marriages 
of the errant male is the motif, common in the German epic as 
in most early literatures, of the meeting of father and son un- 
known to each other. Either the long absent father returns, or 
the son, grown to young manhood, leaves the mother in quest of 
the male parent whom he has never known or seen. The meet- 
ing usually results in combat. The most familiar illustration of 

29 Cf. the conflict between enchaining love and knightly impulses and 
duties as expressed in Erec, 9417 ff., and in Mai u. B., 101, 29. 
so Op. cit., 332 ff. 

si Daniel, 6306 ff., 6754 ff.; Iwein, 1610 ff.; Demantin, 3321 ff., 3454 ff. 
Also Apoll, 19815 ff. 

32 Eanzelet, 4308 ff. Cf. Dargun, Mutterreoht, 119 : "Weder in deutscher 
noch in skandinavischer Vorzeit scheint es — ebensowenig wie in der kel- 
tischen Sage — ungewohnlich gewesen zu sein, dass ein Held die Tochter 
seines erlegten Gegners ehelicht. ' ' 



84 University of California Publications in Modem Philology [Vol. 10 



this motif is the old Hildebrandslied of the 8th century. There, 
just as in the folk song recorded much later, the father Hilde- 
brand has been away from home for thirty (thirty-two) years. 
Although his absence is linked to an historical occurrence (ban- 
ishment with Dietrich), we have to do here with a motif leading 
back to the primitive stage of the race when the male was pro- 
genitor but not socially a father. Hildebrant gives expression 
to the wandering spirit of the unattached male in the words : 

7, 3 "mir ist bei all mein tagen 

zu raisen aufgesatzt. 
zu raisen und zu fechten 
biss auf mein hinefart, 
das sag ieh dir vil jungen 
drumb grawet mir mein bart. ' ' 

In Biterolf und Dietleib the father steals secretly away from his 
wife Dietlind, and makes his way to Etzel's court. The son, 
Dietleib, grows to young manhood, learns from his mother of his 
missing father, and, despite Dietlind 's efforts to retain him, sets 
out in quest of his unknown parent (2261 ff.). While father 
and son are fighting in Etzel's army, they encounter each other 
and engage in combat until separated by Riidiger, from whom 
they at last learn their relationship. In the Demantin Gander 
encounters his son Gerant. Not having seen each other for 
twenty years, they engage in battle, which terminates happily 
in their mutual identification (4870 ff.). In the Wigamur the 
hero is about to champion the cause of Atrocles against his own 
unknown father, but the latter discovers his son's identity in 
time (4141 ff.). In the Reinfried the father Rennewart meets 
his son Malfer. Neither knows the other, and a combat is barely 
averted (23404 ff.) . In the Parzivdl the son Feirefiz, who sprang 
from the last embrace of Gahmuret with Belakane before the 
father's desertion, starts out to find his unknown sire. And 
similarly in the Wigalois, amidst the tears of his mother Florie, 
who had been left pregnant by her husband Gawan, the hero 
starts out in quest of his missing father (379 ff.). 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 80 



The connection between the motif of combat between father 
and son and matriliny is aptly illustrated by a tale current among 
the Ingush of the Caucasus. A man by the name of Tschopa 
has relations with a woman who lives in the woods and who bears 
him two daughters. In order to test Tschopa 's bravery she 
leaves him alone in the woods one day, telling him that at mid- 
night he will see the man of the woods. True enough, at mid- 
night a monster appears, and Tschopa shoots him, whereupon 
the dying creature exclaims: "Alas that you have shot me, for 
I am the brother of the woman with whom you live ! 7 ' A son 
springs from Tschopa 's union with the woman, and as he grows 
up Tschopa begins to fear that the youth may avenge the death 
of his mother's brother. The father therefore avoids the woods, 
but nevertheless one day he meets his son. A battle ensues in 
which the son avenges his uncle by seriously wounding and rob- 
bing his father. 33 



BROTHER AND SISTER 

Close indeed is the tie between brother and brother in the 
German epic. Representing the young and active generation of 
fighters, the brothers are naturally in the foreground of action, 
and with exceptions so few that the picture is in no wise marred, 
they appear in intimate association, living in constant cooper- 
ation, and standing shoulder to shoulder as comrades in arms. 34 
The Jilngere Titurel presents the medieval viewpoint when it 
pronounces brothers to be of one body (3524 ff.). 

33 Darinsky, Zeitschr. filr vergl. Bechtswissenschaft, XIV, 1900, 160 ff. 
In his Sohrab and Bustew,, London, 1902, Murray Anthony Potter has made 
a study of this epic theme of combat between father and son, showing its 
wide prevalence in the popular tradition and literature of many peoples, 
and ascribing its origin to matrilineal conditions. 

si Such inseparable comrades are Gunther, Gemot, and Giselher, as well 
as Hagen and Dankwart in the NL., Wolfrat and Astolt, Fritelen and 
Imbrecken, Etzel and Bloedelin, Liudegast and Liudeger in Bit., Hilde- 
brand and Ilsam in Alp. and Eos. and Diether and Dietrich in Bab. In the 
various versions of Wolfd. the hero is deeply wronged by his brothers, who 
threaten both his life and his inheritance, yet he refuses to kill them. 
The heinousness of fratricide is well illustrated in the Krone, where the 
deed brought disaster and blight upon the entire kin (29497 ff.). 



86 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



But close as brother is bound to brother, the bond between 
brother and sister is representedin the epics as one of still greater 
love and tenderness. 35 The chief tragical motif of the NibeLun- 
genlied lies in the circumstance that it is the oldest brother who 
causes the slaying of his sister's husband, the outraged sister 
killing her brothers in turn to accomplish her revenge. But the 
Nibelungenlicd as we have it by no means represents the original 
version of the legend ; it is highly significant that in the older 
Norse form of the saga it is not her brothers whom Grudrun 
(Kriemhilde) kills, but. on the contrary, her husband Atli upon 
whom she wreaks her vengeance, because of his treachery to her 
brothers. This is much more in keeping with primitive views, 36 
and points indubitably to a period when the blood bond between 
brother and sister was closer than the tie between husband and 
wife. 

A typical emphasis upon the brother-sister bond occurs in 
the Short Sigurd Lay of the Edda. When Gudrun awakes with 
horror to find herself sprayed with the blood of her fatally 
wounded husband, the latter comforts her with the words : 

22 (B. 25) 'grata Jm, Gu>run! 

sua grimliga, 
brubr f rumunga ! 
f»er brse']?r lifa! "s" 

A further interesting illustration of this close bond is found in 
the various versions of Tristan. Isolde II, the daughter of King 
Havelin, appears under the protection and dominance of her 
brother Kehenis. It is this brother who praises the sister's beauty 
to Tristan and who is instrumental in her marriage to him. In 
Heinrich's Tristan, it is the brother whom Tristan first asks for 
her hand. It is the brother who discovers that Tristan has had 
no relations with her throughout the entire first year of their 

35 Cf. Vvaekemagel, Klein ere Schriften, Leipzig, 1872, I, 32, and Ger- 
vinus, Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung, 5. AufL, I, 95 ff. 

36 Cf. Grimm, Ueutsche Heldensage, 3. AufL, Giitersloli, 18S9, 7 ff.; Har- 
tung, op. cit., 20 ff. 

3- <'Do not weep, Gudrun, so bitterly, young wife, you have brothers! ' 
Saimundar Edda, Detter und Heinzel, Leipzig, 1903. 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epio 87 

married life, and who, apprehending eventual desertion of the 
girl, plans Tristan's death in revenge. When the parents ask 
Isolde if she is willing for the marriage, she answers: 

460 ' ' Swaz iuwer wille guoter 

ist unde Kaedines, 
des lieben bruoder mines, 
daz ist ouch wol der wille min. " 

And when Tristan wishes to leave and go to Artus, the mediation 
is again through the brother, who asks her : 

1488 "isot mm swester, wil ab duo 

gunnen im der reise?" 

It is of frequent occurrence that the brother exercises control 
over the hand of his sister, even though in some cases the father 
is living. Thus Willehalm, in Ulrich's epic, gives his sister in 
marriage to King Loys (XXXV, 8 ff.). In Heinrich und 
Kunigunde Heinrich gives his sister Gisele in marriage to King 
Stephan (2107 ff.). In Self rid Turkoit gives his sister Soys 
in marriage to Anziflor (253, 5 ff.). In Gar el Eskilabon disposes 
of the hand of his sister in marriage to Wilhalm (373 ff.). In 
Meier Helmbrecht Gotelind is completely under her brother's 
spell, and it is he who arranges and carries out her marriage with 
Lemberslind (1279 ff.). There are, to be sure, a few instances 
of hostility between brother and sister, as in the Nibelungenlied, 
and in the cases of Kandalion and Antonie in the Tandareis, 
Gotegrin and Genover in the Krone, and of Willehalm and his 
sister in Wolfram's Willehalm ; but these are rare exceptions. 

The German epic, folk song, and fairy tale depict in countless 
variations the brother as the confidant and faithful protector of 
the sister. And when the father dies this personal relationship 
becomes a legal one, for the guardianship of the mother and of 
the unmarried sisters passed according to old laws to the brothers, 
and specifically to the oldest brother. 38 The brother of the wife 

Thus the opening verses of the Nibelungenlied find Kriemhilde under 
the protection and guardianship of her brothers: 
4 Ir pflagen drie kiinege edel unde rich, 
Gunther unde Gemot, die recken lobelich, 
und Giselher der junge, ein uz erwelter degen. 
diu f rouwe was ir swester, die f iirsten heten s 'in ir pflegen. 



88 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 

was the most important link in the union of two sippen which 
were connected by marriage. 39 Even when a daughter was mar- 
ried and parted from her family, the bonds between brother and 
sister were not entirely severed. We have many instances in the 
epics where help is extended by the brother to the sister even 
after she has passed into the control of a husband; 40 and her 
husband is always confident of the active assistance of his wife's 
brother. 41 Her children, of course, are under the same protec- 
tion. Here we come upon that intimate and close tie which is 
our special study, namely, that of uncle and sister's son; for the 
nexus between uncle and nephew is the sister as mother. This 
is shown by the phrase which is repeated again and again in the 
epics, as in Biter olf 671, where the uncle says to his sister's son: 

min swester was diu muoter din. 

Why, it might well be asked, if the avunculate is due to matri- 
Jineal blood relationship, is the tie between uncle and sister's son 
more prominent in the epic than that between brother and sister, 
since the blood bond between the latter two is even closer than 
the bond between the former ? 42 The explanation is to be found 
in part in the fact that although the female may occasionally 
appear as an Amazon in battle, 43 it is naturally impossible for 
her to occupy an equally prominent part in the heroic action in 
association with the combatant male. But there is a further 
important factor. The influence of the brother in his sister's 
behalf is to some extent paralyzed by his youthful age. With 
the passing of time and the marriage of the sister the maturity 
of the brother increases, so that as maternal uncle he occupies a 

39 Cf. Hoffmann: V erwandtsclnaft mit der Sippe der Frau, Breslau, 1911, 
passim. 

40 NL., 1292 ; Gar., 2806 ff . ; Mel., 2264 ff, 

^Laur. u. Wall., 575 ff. ; Wolfd. A, 166 ff . ; Iicein 1730 ff . ; Willi, v. 
Ost., 11469 ff. 

42 Thus Gummere finds it an anomaly that whereas in the English and 
Scottish popular ballads there is no great emphasis on the love of brother 
and sister, stress is laid on the bond between brother and sister's son, a 
far less obvious matter. Op. cit., 135. 

43 Cf. Frau Bride in Orendel, Briinhilde in the NL. 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 89 

similar position toward his nephew with respect to age and gen- 
eration as the father occupies toward his son. It is therefore 
entirely natural that the influence wielded by a man as mother's 
brother surpasses the influence which he was able to exercise in 
younger years as brother. 44 Protector and protege belong char- 
acteristically not to the same, but to two different generations. 

THE MOTHER 

If the avunculate, which we shall treat in a following chapter, 
is a survival from primitive matrilineal times, we should expect 
to find the woman occupying as mother, too, a very prominent 
place in the epic, and the bond between mother and child repre- 
sented as one of sacred closeness. Nor are we disappointed. 
Although she is unable to bear arms, and, like the male, w r in 
heroic prominence, the mother is nevertheless omnipresent, her 
spirit is always felt. While the father is frequently ignored or 
but scantily mentioned, the mother, her brothers, and her kin 
form the framework around which the plot of the typical epic 
is built. Brooding over her household of children, her love for 
them is never failing. It is to her rather than to the father that 
the children usually turn, and we find complete substantiation 
of Klemm's declaration: 45 "Unter alien Pflichten wird keine so 
selten verletzt, als die Mutterpflicht. ' ' As was pointed out above, 
warfare kept the father much away from home during the turbu- 
lent middle ages, and often resulted in his early death. This 
left the mother as the head of the household ; and the closer 
association of the mother with the home enshrines her deeply in 
the hearts of her children. The significance of the mother's 
prominence in the epics in comparison with the father's position 
therefore can not be over-estimated. Yet it is apparent that the 
more the male parent is absent or detached from his wife and 
children the stronger are the tendencies toward matrilineal 
organization within the kin group ; and the comparative promi- 
nence of the mother and the greater strength of the maternal 

44 Dargun, Studien sum dltesten Familienrecht, Leipzig, 1892, 82 ff. 

45 Die Frauen, Dresden, 1855, II, 216. 



90 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



as against the paternal bond in the epic harmonize well with the 
theory of primitive Teutonic matriliny. Back of the maternal 
prominence as well as of the unimportance of the father as 
reflected in this early literature, primitive social tendencies may 
still have been an unconsciously formative force. 

In the Hildebrandslied, the Ruodlieb, Nibelungenlied, Gud- 
run, Biterolf und Dietleip, Ortnit, Parzival, Partonopier und 
Meliur, and Mai und Beaflor, as well as in other epics of minor 
importance, the mother acts as the family head, the father being 
dead, absent, or alive but ignored, and there are numerous cases 
in which the father's attachment to the wife is temporary only, 
the progeny growing up solely in the mother's care. In the case 
of Uote, who presides over the royal Burgundian family in the 
Nibelungenlied, Wackernagel 46 even sees significance in the name, 
suggesting a possible connection with Skt. udara, Lat. uterus, 
carrying us back to the kin-conception of woman ; and Grimm 47 
places the name in Ablaut relation to atta, with the meaning 
Stammmutter, Ahnfrau von Heldengeschlechtem. 

There is a pronounced tendency not only to name the child 
after the maternal kin and after the uncle in particular, but 

also to designate the children in terms of the mother as ' 's 

child.' Thus in the Nibelungenlied the royal children of Bur- 
gundy are referred to as: 

das Uotenkint (126, 1). 

der schoenen Uoten hint (291, 3; 2188, 1; 2295, 1). 

der edelen Uoten hint (717, 2; 865, 3 ; 1406, 3; 1627, 3). 

vroun Uoten hint (703, 2). 

der schoenen Uoten sun (1213, 1). 

den Uoten kinden (1723, 3). 

diu hint der schoenen Uoten (1517, 1). 

din Uoten hint (2100, 1). 

der junge sun vroun Uoten (1970, 1). 
In the case of Uote 's children this might be considered to be due 
to the fact that the father is dead. But examination of usage in 

46 Worterbuch, 342 ; cf . Pearson, Chances of Death, London, 1897, II, 132. 

47 Z. f. d. A., I, 21. 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 91 

this and other epics shows that this is at least not the only reason. 
Other characters in this epic are quite commonly referred to in 
the same manner, though their fathers are living. Sifrid is called 
both Sigemundes sun or hint (124, 4, etc.) and daz Sigelinde hint 
(47, 1, etc.). The young Markgrdfin von Pochlam is not men- 
tioned by name in the entire epic, but is always called der Gote- 
linde tohter (1322, 3, etc.). In other epics where the father is 
living Ave find the children commonly designated after the mother. 
Dietleip, in Biterolf und Dietleip, is at times called daz Biterolf es 
hint, especially when he is associated with the father in action, 
but more frequently daz Dietlinde hint. 48 And throughout the 
Rabenschlacht the sons of Etzel and Helche are preferably re- 
ferred to as vroun Helchen hint} 9 This nomenclature, with its 
emphasis upon the maternal parent, may be reasonably explained 
in part as a matrilineal tendency. 50 Other reasons, however, 
may be advanced for the practice. 51 It has already been noted 
that when the name of an individual is suppressed and he is 
mentioned in terms of relationship to others, designation after 
the father also occurs. Furthermore, the designation is not 
always after the parent ; we find the parent designated at times 
after the children, as: vater der Hilden for Hagen (Gud., 526, 3), 
voter der Kutrunen (Gad., 642, 3), and the relationship is also 
expressed in terms of husband or wife, brother or sister, uncle 
or sister's son; e.g., for Sifrit, der Kriemhilde man (NL. 1048, 
1) ; for Kriemhilde, daz Sif rides wip (NL. 1066, 1) ; for Ortwin, 
Kudmnen braoder (Gud. 1095, 4) ; for Kudrun, dm Ortwines 
sivester (Gud. 1273, 4) ; for Hildebrand, der Wolfhartes oeheim 
(NL., MS C, 352, 5) ; and for Wolf hart, Hildebrands swesterkint 

48 Bit. 3135, 3592, 4076, 4767, 5574, 5737, 11511, 11915, 12854. 
^Bab. 299, 4; 301; 316, 1; 320, 5; 340, 2; 372, 6; 381, 1; 401, 6; 440, 6; 
981, 4. 

50 Cf. Lamprecht, Deutsche Geschichte, Berlin, 1894, I, 103. 

51 Timm suggests (Das Nibelungenlied nach Darstellung und Sprache ein 
TJrbild deutscher Poesie, 112) that in the Nibelungenlied designation of a 

person as ' 's child' after the mother is used when the beauty of the 

person to be referred to is to be emphasized. But a study of the context 
of such passages and of usage in other epics does not justify this view- 
point. 



92 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 

(NL. 2248, 4). These name substitutes emphasize the relation- 
ship ties in all directions, as was necessary in the presentation 
of the long epics, which, it must be remembered, were originally 
given Orally and not in writing. The all-important factor of 
relationship was in those days a chief motivation of action, and 
the identifying now after this, now after that, relative was a 
necessary stylistic device for keeping in mind the tangled web 
of relationships in the by no means simple plots. Another factor 
in these name substitutions is to be seen in the epic fondness for 
rotation or variation in designation, and a love of sonorous names. 
This latter predilection even grew, in the court epic, to be a vice. 512 
In addition to this current substitution of the mother's name 
for that of the person referred to, there is a tendency to lay 
emphasis upon the maternal parentage in giving genealogies. 
Sometimes the maternal parentage alone is indicated ; and again, 
whereas we in present-day speech would almost invariably men- 
tion (1) the father and (2) the mother, it is quite common in the 
epics to find the latter mentioned first. Who Horant's father 
was in the Gudrun we do not know. We are told of him : 

1112 sin muoter diu was swester Hetelen des richen 

welt ir's im getrouwen, so suit ir'm in dem sturme niht entwichen. 

His only further identification is through his maternal uncle. 
In Biterolf und Dietleip the stress is laid on the maternal descent 
from the very beginning of the narrative. We are told of our 
hero: 

193 Dietleip also was er genant: 

der helt was des ungeschant, 
sin muoter hiez frou Dietlint, 
diu was eins richen kiineges kint; 
in erbte an ere deste baz. 

52 Goedeke, Grundriss, Hannover, 1884, 74, remarks: "Die ode Sucht 
an der Aufzahlung solcher fremden Namen verleitet den Dichter der 
Krone die Verse 872-912 und 2291-2345 nur mit solchen abenteuerlichen 
Namen zu fiillen und selbst Hartmann hat im Erec ahnliche Haufung. " 
We find such weird names as: Liachturteltart and Brandelidelin, Schiona- 
tulander and Utepandragun, Condwiramurs and Poydiconjunz, Mylegra- 
gram and Gazozein, Affrosydones and Quebeleplutz, Dyartorsorgrannt and 
Glakothelesflojir, Triasoltrifertrant and Galagandreiz, Pliopleherin, Hiber- 
bortikon, Killirjacac, Karnachkarnanz, and Gurnemanz aus Tribalibot. 



1922] 



Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epio 



93 



Again we are told of the mother s 

2003 si was frou Dietlint genant, 

ir dienten siben fiirsten lant; 
da hiez ir sun her Dietleip. 

Giving his own identity, Dietleip mentions his mother first : 

4265 mm muoter heizet Dietlint, 

des alten Dietheres kint. 
min vater ist Biterolf genannt. 

The mother is also mentioned before the father by other charac- 
ters in the same epic : 

4236 Diether hiez iuwers anen name. 

iuwer muoter hiez Dietlint, 
ir sit daz Biterolfes kint. 

In Partonopier und Meliur the hero is introduced in the foster- 
age of his maternal uncle, and is then further identified through 
his mother : 

268 sin muoter daz vil reine wip 

geheizen was Lucrete, 
diu wol geleret hete 
den jungelinc gebaren. 

"Whenever Partonopier 's mind turns to his relatives, it is unfail- 
ingly of his uncle and of his mother that he thinks, never of the 
father (cf. 744 ff. ; 2722 ff. ; 2738 ff. ; 2796 ff.) ; it is only late in 
the epic that the father's death makes clear that he had all the 
while been living. In the Trojanischer Krieg, of classical origin 
and patrilineal throughout in relationships, there is a touch of 
preference for the mother and her kin in Ajax' identification of 
himself to Hector : 

37370 "sit ich von iu gevraget bin 

des kiinnes und der friunde min, 
so tuon ich iu mit rede schin 
die muoter, diu mich hat getragen. 
ich wil iu minen namen sagen 
und min vil hoch geslehte. ' ' 

Sometimes a natural explanation for this preference lies at hand 
in the fact of the father's death or absence. Thus when the son 



94 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



is thrown in combat in the Jilngere Hildebrandslied and is forced 
to reveal his identity, it is normal that he should mention first 
the parent who has reared him : 

. 14, 2 "ich bin ein edler degen us Kriechenlanden stolz, 

min muter heist fraw Ute, ein gewaltige herzogin 
so ist Hiltebrant der alte der liebste vater min. 

The heroine Kriemhilde in the Nibelungenlied is introduced 
through her brothers, and again it is natural that of her parents 
the living mother should receive first mention : 

7, 1 Ein richiu kiineginne, frau Uote ir muoter hiez 

ir vater der hiez Dancrat, der in diu erbe liez. 

No such explanation is available, however, for the passage in the 
Humeri Seyfrid, where the hero, who has run away from home, 
inquires concerning his own identity of a dwarf and is told first 
the name of his mother : 

48, 2 Do sprach zu. im das Zwerge Will dir zu wissen thon 
Deyn muter hiess Siglinge Und was von Adel geporn 
Deyn vatter Kunig Sigmund Von den so bist du wordn. 

In the Karlmeinet Bremund asks Karl on the battlefield who his 
father is. Under such circumstances it seems peculiarly signifi- 
cant that Karl in his reply should name his mother first : 

A 90, 14 Myn moder Berte van Vranckriehe, 

Anders wil ich wyssen werliche, 
Dat Pippyn der konynck here 
Myn adel vater were. 

A great number of similar passages could be cited if space per- 
mitted, 53 showing the frequency of this practice in the epic. 

Because of the prime importance of kinship in the middle 
ages the epics teem with passages which point out the closeness 
of relationship through common parentage, such as: 

NL. 1556, 3 von vater und von muoter was er der bruoder min. 

53 Similar cases are: Ort. 394, 4; Pars. XIII, 280 ff.; J. Tit. 5214; Parto. 
13178 ff.; Apol. 19959; Seyf. 61, 1 ff. ; Fand. 10722 ff.; Eilh. Trist. 631 ff.; 
Vol. 1240; Wigl. 150, 30 ff.; 223, 12 ff.; Wigm. 893, 4148; Wilh. Ost. 12269 
ff.; Wilh. Wend. 6415; Gar. 4199. 



1922] 



Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 



95 



It is significant, however, that in these expressions the tendency 
predominates to trace the relationship through a common womb : 

NL. 2104, 3 wand' ir sit mine bruocler unde einer muoter kint. 
TJlr. Alex. 12193 "herre, han ich triuwe, 

so ist iuwer leit min riuwe. 

ich waen wir wesen doch ein lip, 

sit daz uns beide braht ein wip. ' ' 

Willi. Ost. 14106 ' ' wir sin von ainem liben 
bechomen waerlich, 
bistu von Osterrich. ' ' 

Parz. 1, 184 deiswar ich tuon iu alien schin 

daz uns beide ein muoter truoc. 

Tit. 138, 4 gedenk' daz unser beider muoter ein wibes lip gebaere. 

We see pictured in the epics the characteristic difference in 
the nature of the sexes in that the father frequently appears 
stern towards his offspring, the mother by contrast gentle, loving, 
^and forgiving. While the father in Meier Helmbrecht relent- 
lessly drives away his blinded and crippled son whose folly he 
cannot forgive, 

1812 im gap diu muoter doch ein brot. 

and while in St. Francisken Leben the father cruelly punishes 
his son and casts him with tied hands into a cellar, the mother 
loosens his bonds and frees him in the father's absence. It is 
the mother Helche 's love for her sons and her boundless grief at 
their death which is in the foreground in the Rabenschlacht, not 
the emotions of the father ; and this is typical of the epics in 
general. So deep is the maternal love, so close is the bond of souls 
between the mother and her children, that the approach of danger 
to them brings her forebodings in dreams, 54 and the evil which 
befalls them frequently leads to her death from grief. The epics 
present an imposing array of mothers who die of a broken heart 
over the departure of their sons or over the ill that befalls them ; 
but paternal grief never breaks a father's heart. At times we 
find direct comment upon the preeminence of maternal love, as 
when the poet says : 55 

54 Cf. below, 102 f. ss st. Francisken Leben, 790. 



96 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



ich waene der muoter diu kint 
lieber danne dem vater sint. 

This difference in parental love is due, as stated above, to the 
inherent difference of the male and female natures, and continues 
today. Yet it is a matter not unrelated to the question of matril- 
iny; it is precisely on this fundamental sex difference that the 
theory of matriliny is based, and the mother is the closer parent 
today for the same reason that, at a certain stage among primi- 
tive races, and largely controlled by economic conditions, she is 
the family head. 

The sacredness of the maternal tie is to be seen in the rarity 
with which it is broken. In the Willehalm., when her own people 
war against Queen Gyburg because of her elopement, and when 
even her father has determined upon her death, her son alone, 
" Gyburg e barn," refuses to take up arms against her. As the 
Krone asserts: 

22353 Ouch enwizzen diu kint leben 

Nach der muoter von triuwen: 
Dar an kan sie niuwen 
Renter nature art, 
Daz selten ie verkert wart, 
Ez enwaer bi schaden hochvart. 

We have noted but a single case of the violation of this tie, and 
that in an epic of late date, Mai und Beaflor. Under the strong- 
est provocation Mai slays his mother. Though the justice of the 
deed is recognized by his followers, the son cannot cast its crush- 
ing weight from his conscience : 

175,2 ' ' vervluochet si diu stunde, " 

sprach er, ''in der ich wart geborn! 
ich han nu sele und lip verlorn. 
ich mac wol von schulden klagen, 
daz die min hant hat erslagen 
diu mich truog und mich gebar. ' ' 

Various other evidence, less direct and conscious but for that 
reason none the less reliable, points to the primacy of the mater- 
nal parent in the popular mind. There are, for instance, the 
constantly recurring medieval expressions muoter barn, muoter 



1922] Bell: The Sifter's Son in the Medieval German Epic 



97 



hint, comparable to the English phrase, "every mother's son of 
you," and the modern German expressions: keine Mutterseele, 
kein Mutterkind, kein Muttermensch. The popularity of such 
phrases as : 

Both. 761 er was der aller kiinisten eine 

der ie motirbarn gehiez. 

or 

NL. 19, 4 durch sin eines sterben starb vil maneger muoter kint. 

is attested by the occurrence of twenty such passages in a single 
epic (Troj. K.). There are, of course, many cases where noble 
rank is indicated through paternal titles, such as: kilniges kint. 
But these are in no way parallel to muoter kint, inasmuch as 
such phrases as the former are used solely to indicate rank and 
do not stress the paternal bond. 

Because of the sacredness of the filial tie to the mother, she 
was sometimes sworn by; Alexander (Alex. Str. 3761), " swor bi 
siner muter heile." Of similar significance is the fact that while 
countless passages sing the praise of the mother who has given 
birth to a hero, there is not one passage that gives credit to the 
father : 

Both. 4701 din modir muze salich sin 

daz si dich ie getruc. 

Ulr. Alex. 3444 wol dem wibe, die in gebar! 

J. Tit. 2714, 1 O wol gescheh dem wibe, die dise fruht ie brehte! 

By the same token the qualities of the son may reflect unfavor- 
ably upon the mother : 

Ulr. Alex. 7055 wie torstest du, boeses wibes suon, 
solich untriwe gegen mir tuon? 

Liet. v. T. 2025 Ir muter sun von schalkes art! 

and a slur upon a person's mother was the sharpest form of 
scurrilous attack. 56 

Speaking of the characteristics of matriliny among primitive peoples, 
Post (Ethn. Juris., I, 71 ff.) says: "So findet sich haufig eine ausseror- 
dentliche Hochachtung fur die Mutter im Gegensatz zum Vater, was sich 
namentlich auch darin aussert, dass eine Beleidigung der Mutter als be- 
sonders schwer gilt. ' ' Herein is to be found the explanation of a phe- 



98 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 

Another expression with a matrilineal background comes to 
light in the Karlmeinet: 

176, 15 Want Orias quam zo hant 

All moder leyne gerant. 

and in Peter Diemringer: 

285 . vil schier da uf dem steine 

die schoen saz muotereine. (Cf. 222, 469.) 

Here the effect of the word mutter is intensive, as in similar 
expressions mutterbloss, mutternackt, etc. Mutterallein, or mut- 
ter seelenallein, really means: all alone but for the ever-present 
spirit of the mother. 57 

In many other ways the German language reflects the matri- 
lineal influence that has been so potent in its moulding. One 
need only mention the extensive number of words compounded 
with Mutter, such as Mutterhabe, Mutterwitz, Mutter dent sch, 
Mutt erspr ache, Muttererde, Mutterkirche, Muttermal, etc. Com- 
menting upon the word kilnne (Got. kuni, Gr. yeVo? 5 Lat. gens), 
Engels 58 maintains that the connection of this word with the 
root found in Gr. yvvrj Slav, zena, Got. quino, Norse kona, Eng. 
queen, leads us back to the matrilineal period. Muller-Lyer 59 
calls attention to the word Geiichter (derived from 0. H. G. 
lehtar, gilehtar, 'womb'), meaning 'all those springing from the 
same womb. ' Coming to mean relationship in general, the word 
has now paled to the meaning 'of the same (low) kind, same 
sort. ' 60 It may also be stated that all Indo-European words 
meaning to beget referred first to the functioning of the mother, 
and only later came to be used with reference to the part played 
by the father. 

nomenon common to many, if not all, languages, upon which Grimm (Ea., 
II, 205 f.) comments, but for which he offers' no explanation, namely: that 
the coarsest and most insulting epithets contain a reflection upon a per- 
son's mother, never upon the father. We need only recall the epithet 
' ' son of a . ' ' 

57 Cf. Lippert, Geschichte der Familie, Stuttgart, 1884, 58. 

58 Origin of Fam., Chicago, 1905, 163. 

59 Die Familie, Miinchen, 1912, 183. 
eo Paul: Worterbuch, 2. Aufl., 200. 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 99 

From one standpoint or another various authors 61 have com- 
mented on other German words which are matrilineal in their 
conception. Such words are Brautschaft, Brdutigam, Geschwis- 
ter (instead of the patrilineal word Gebrilder), Geschwister- 
kinder, Brautpaar, and the compounds Schwiegervater, Schwie- 
gersohn (where the feminine Schwieger is used rather than the 
masculine Schwaher). It is a striking fact, however, that while 
we speak of our 'mother tongue' and the German of his Mutter- 
sprache, and while we also speak of our 'mother country,' the 
German on the other hand usually speaks of his Vaterland. The 
word Mutterland, used in German in the sense of the parent land 
over against colonies, is not, however, entirely unknown in the 
same sense in which Vaterland is used. 62 Nevertheless, the patri- 
lineal word Vaterland has the preference in modern German 
usage. The writer believes, however, that this may be easily 
explained. The earliest use of the word does not antedate the 
Middle High German period. Examples are as follows : 

• Eilh. Trist. 5621 "ich bin geheizzen Tristrant, 
Lochnois ist mines vatir lant 
und ich bin Markes swestir barn. ' ' 

In the Partonopier, in which the royal father is all but entirely 
ignored and where the hero's sole thought in connection with 
homecoming is of his mother and maternal uncle, we are never- 
theless told that : 

2722 uf sines werden vater lant 

wart sin herze do verdaht. 

Simply because the ownership of property, and the descent of 
the same through inheritance, had passed completely into the 

61 Cf. Miiller-Leyer, Die Earn., 183; Weise, Mutt erspr -ache, Leipzig and 
Berlin, 1907, 48; and the various dictionaries. 

62 Thus Kant (10, 83) speaks of "die Angemessenheit der Menschen 
zu ihren Mutterlandern. " Wieland says (27, 40): "Ich bin zwar im 
Begriff eine kleine Reise in unser altes Mutterland zu machen. " Goethe 
writes (32, 103): "Das mannichfaltige Bedeutende, das ich vor einem 
Jahr im eigentlichen Mutterlande gesehen, erlebt und gedacht hatte. ' ' 
Similar usage occurs with other good authors, such as Burger, Herder, and 
Uhland. Cf. Grimm, Worterouch, s. v. Mutter. 



100 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



hands of the men long before the Middle High German period, 
the words Land, Stadt, became associated with the father rather 
than with the mother. 63 

As might be expected, many proverbs preserve to the present 
day an emphasis upon the maternal relation. 64 The fact that 
die Sonne is feminine in German while der Mond is masculine 
may be a further bit of linguistic evidence. In the classical 
languages the genders are reversed. Although there is much 
force in the current explanation that these genders are due to 
climatic conditions, it is suggested that religious and, primarily, 
sociological conditions offer a more immediate and satisfactory 
explanation. To primitive peoples the sun and moon are deities. 
Reflection of the prominence of the female in the social structure 
of matrilineal societies has usually been observed in their relig- 
ious practices and theogony. We may have to do here with the 
same matrilineal influence which has left so many other imprints 
upon the German language and literature. The occasional occur- 
rence of the word for sun as masculine in Germanic is explain- 
able on the basis of analogy. 



POSITION OF THE TEUTON WOMAN 

The prominence of the female in early theogony and mythol- 
ogy, in religion, and in medicine, may rest in part upon her 
faculty of intuition; it seems probable, however, that it stands 
in some relation to her position in the primitive family. There 
is no hard and fast causal relation between matriliny and the 
position occupied by woman in a society. Matriliny, however, 
undoubtedly tends to enhance the position of woman, and in 



63 Dargun (Mutt err echt, 58, N. 4) quotes Bonifacius and Clement to 
show that the expression Mutterland is far older than Vaterland. 

64 Such for instance as: "Keine Mutter tragt einen Bastard," "Was 
der Mutter ans Herz geht, das geht dem Vater nur an die Kniee, ' ' and in 
English: "Necessity is the mother of invention." In popular speech both 
in English (Pearson, op. cit., II, 27) and in German (Luther, 5, 40 b; 300 a; 
8, 179 a; cf. Schuppius, 113; Pistorius, thes. par. 4, 12) reference is made 
to a mother of the devil, or the devil's grandmother, while a paternal 
genealogy is never supplied. 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 101 

certain known cases she has attained an elevated place in family 
and even in tribal life. Although it by no means follows that 
her occupancy of a high position is an indication of contempo- 
rary or prior matrilineal conditions, it may have some weight as 
contributory evidence. 

Schiller's words, "Ehret die Frauen," seem like an echo from 
the distant past of the Germanic race. Whatever significance 
may be attached to the fact, it is noticeable of the early Teutons, 
as compared with other Indo-European races, that woman occu- 
pies in some respects a place of peculiar prominence. Strabo 
describes the hoary-headed priestesses of the Cimbri, who slew 
the prisoners taken in warfare, and prophesied the outcome of 
battle from the flow of blood and from the entrails of the vic- 
tims. 65 This report is confirmed and enlarged upon by Tacitus, 
who tells us that the Teutons heeded the counsels of their females ; 
that they regarded them as endowed with the gift of prophecy, 
and made priestesses and even divinities of them. 66 He further 
recounts that the women accompanied the men on their warring 
expeditions, encouraged them in battle by their cries, and even 
upon occasion engaged in the combat themselves. 67 

These Amazonian activities which the historians have recorded 
remind us of the Idisi and Walkiiren of early Germanic litera- 
ture. Briinhilde of the Nibehmgenlied is evidently one of these. 
It is only by the help of Sifrit and his Tarnkappe that the 
redoubtable Gunther is able to defeat her in various contests; 
and on her wedding night she checks her husband's unwelcome 
advances by hanging him upon a peg on the wall. Hilde, the 
instigator of the expedition of revenge in the Gudrun, is also 
originally a Walkilre with a wild and unquenchable thirst for 
warfare, who has been toned down to human proportions. 68 Sim- 
ilar traces of primitive wildness are discernible in Frau? Bride 

65 Straoonis Geographica, Bk. G, chap. 2, 403. 

66 Tacitus: Hist., IV, 61, 65. 

67 E.g., the defeat of the Cimbri by Marius (Tacitus, Germania, c. 7-8); 
and the leading of the Cheruskian army by Thusnelda (Strabo, Geog., I, 
446). 

68 Cf. Symons: Heldensage, in Paul: Grundriss, 1. AufL, II, 52. 



102 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 

in Orendel. Shattering against the wall the sword with which 
her chamberlain tries to deceive her, so that it breaks into frag- 
ments : 

1611 si sluog im daz em iiber sinen riicken, 

si nam in bi dem hare, 

si drat in under die fiieze zware. (Cf. 2439 ff.) 

When Orendel is hard pressed in battle, she comes to his assist- 
ance in most Amazonian fashion, cutting a wide swath through 
the pagan army, and striking a heathen rider from his horse in 
order to provide the hero with a mount (2055 ff. ; cf. 3832 ff.). 69 
Something of the divine and omniscient lingers in the char- 
acters of the swan-maiden type which are found in early Ger- 
manic literature. A well-known illustration occurs in the Nibe- 
hmgenlied. When the Burgundians have reached the Donau on 
their fatal trip to Etzel, and Hagan is seeking a ferryman, he 
comes upon several swan-maidens bathing in the water. By 
stealing their garments he forces them to foretell the outcome 
of the Burgundian expedition (1533 ff.). The swan-maiden 
occurs again in the Gudrun, but christianized into an angel 
appearing in the guise of a bird, to tell Gudrun of her approach- 
ing deliverance. It is doubtless a trace of this same motif which 
comes to light in the epics Lohengrin and the Schwanritter, 
where a swan brings the hero to the rescue of the oppressed 
maiden. Although the swan's clothing is laid aside in. the later 
epics, wisiu wip still possess miraculous powers of healing (e.g., 
diu wise Isolde and her mother in Tristan 70 ) and of prophecy. 
In the Nibelungenlied Kriemhilde has forebodings of her coming 

69 Lippert (Kulturgesch., Stuttgart, 1886-7, II, 68) thus describes the 
prominence of woman in the North Germanic Saga: "Es ist ein interes- 
santer Zug der nordischen Sage, dass sie sich gern mit Frauen beschaftigt, 
welche durch das sieghafte Festhalten an ihrer Hoheitsstellung volkstum- 
lich geworden waren. Thorborg, welche zu Pferde den Bauern den gefan- 
genen Gretter abjagte (Gretters Saga), Sigrid Storrada, Ingeborg, Eage- 
walds Frau Asta, die Mutter des Olof Digre, waren im Norden Muster, 
aber nicht die einzigen Hausfrauen dieses Schlages. Die Sagen erzahlen 
vielfach von im offentlichen Leben bedeutenden Mannern, dass sie daheim 
unter Frauenregiment stunden, und der Islander Thorhaller (Thord Hraedes 
Saga) betonte, dass das in seinem Hause so gebrauchlich ware." 

^Gottfr. Trist., 7789, 10288. Cf. Chadwick, op. cit., 339 ff.; Klemm, 
Allgem. Kulturgesch., Leipzig, 1847, IX, 33 ff. 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 103 

disaster in a dream which her mother, Frau Uote, interprets 
(NL 13, Iff.)- In the Ruodlieb the mother's dream symbolizes 
the son's later victory in a combat by which he wins a beautiful 
princess and with her a realm. In the Herzog Ernst (D, CLXXI) 
the mother has knowledge of her son's distress through dreams; 
and in the Rabenschlacht Helche has a premonition in a dream 
of the coming death of her sons. 

Some of the later German narrative poems which bear certain 
earmarks of folk poesy contain brides of the swan-maiden type. 
It is typical of these female characters that they possess miracu- 
lous powers by which they are able to change their forms, remain 
invisible, etc., etc. They dominate the marriage relation, and 
lay restrictions or taboos upon the husband, upon the disregard- 
ing of which they break the marriage union. We find such brides 
in Partonopier und Meliur, Peter Deimringer, and in Friedrich 
von Schwab en. In the latter epic Friedrich pursues a maiden 
in the form of a deer, and reaches her palace in the woods at 
night. His union with her is under strict conditions : if he sees 
her, he must lose an eye and she will fly away as a dove. The 
union is broken when the hero strikes a light at night to behold 
her, and it is only after long travail that he is able to rejoin his 
lost love. Seyfried's main love adventure, in the Sey fried de 
Ardemont, is with Mundirosa, a bride of the same type. When 
he breaks' the restriction which she places upon him, she takes 
leave of him. Seyfried swears that he will search the whole 
world for her, and finally succeeds in accomplishing their reunion. 
In Gauriel von Muntabel, Gauriel may not mention to others his 
beloved, the Queen of Fluratrone, with whom he lives periodi- 
cally in matrilocal marriage. The breaking of this restriction 
results in his disfigurement and her disappearance. With the 
greatest difficulty he accomplishes their reunion. The significant 
thing in these cases is not only the miraculous power attributed 
to the female but her dominance of the marriage union in the 
imposing of taboos upon the husband and in terminating the 
union upon her own pleasure. This reminds one of female domi- 
nance of the marriage relationship in modern matrilineal socie- 



104 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



ties. Among the Pueblo Indians, for instance, the husband who 
has aroused his wife's dissatisfaction understands well enough 
what it means when he finds his personal belongings done up in 
his blanket and placed before the door of the dwelling — a hint 
which he does not fail to heed. 71 

It is common knowledge that Christianity has lowered the 
position of the Teuton woman. In the female characteristics 
which had seemed divine to the old Teutons the Christian church 
saw only the demoniacal; and at the touch of the missionaries 
the priestesses of the gods and goddesses became creatures of the 
devil — the holy and wise women became witches. 72 The Church 
was the implacable foe of the old heathen viewpoints ; what it 
could not suppress it transformed by the grafting of Christian 
ideas on to the old roots. Local mother goddesses were converted 
into local saints, as for instance Walpurg, known at once as saint 
and as presiding mother of the witches which hold high carnival 
in the Walpurgisnacht, as pictured in Goethe's Faust. And the 
Virgin Mary herself takes the place in innumerable ways of the 
old mother goddess of fertility. 73 This leads us to understand 
what would otherwise appear as a strange and unnatural phe- 
nomenon in early German literature: the Marienkult. It is 
nothing more nor less than a cyclic recurrence of the matrilineal 
tendency which accompanied the development of chivalry. In 
the worship and veneration of the Virgin Mary, and in the 
Minnedienst of knighthood, the earlier pagan ideas of womanhood 
found perpetuation. 

71 Stuart-Glennie, in his Origins of Matriarchy, in: The Women of 
Turkey and their Folklore, London, 1890-1, Sec. Ill, 583), gives an inter- 
esting characterization of the swan-maiden type of bride which is so common 
in folk poesy. 

72 The etymology of the word ' witch' is in itself instructive; it is 
related to Low Ger. wiklcen, to predict, and may possibly be identical with 
Anglo-Saxon witisa, soothsayer, from the verb 'to wit,' Ger. ivissen. 

73 Cf. Pearson, op. cit., II, 33 if.; Bernhoft, Frauenleben in der Vorzeit, 
Wismar, 1893, 48 ff. 



1922] 



Bell: The Sister's Son in tlie Medieval German Epic 



105 



II. UNCLE AND NEPHEW 

Of all blood relationships that of the uncle and his nephew 
is the most prominent in the medieval German epic and the most 
glorified. The uncle is usually related on the maternal side, the 
nephew being identified in an overwhelming number of cases as 
the sister's son. With the mother's kindred as the background, 
it is quite the rule to find the uncle and nephew usurping the 
central place in the dramatic interest of the epic. 

In order to realize fully the prominence of the uncle-nephew 
motif in the various plots it is really necessary to read the epics 
in their entirety from this particular viewpoint. Although the 
very abundance and extent of the material make a full presenta- 
tion impossible here, the following pages nevertheless attempt to 
give a general idea of its character and volume in a brief review 
of the extensive field of the medieval German epic. 

It seems advisable, in tracing this motif, to consider first the 
epics of more or less purely Germanic origin, and, second, those 
which came into German literature through French inspiration 
or were subject to French influence. The chronological 
sequence will be adhered to as far as practicable. In this con- 
nection it must be borne in mind that the date at which the 
epics were written is in many cases indeterminate. Further- 
more, the date of writing is by no means a gage of the age of the 
elements out of which the epic, in its final written form, grew. 
It is apparently advisable, too, for stylistic reasons, to group 
together epics embodying the same legend, even if they were 
written in different periods. 

The earliest German epics in which we find the uncle and 
nephew motif are written in Latin. The first of these is the 
Waltharilied, written about 930. Although the form is pat- 
terned after Virgil, the material is truly Germanic in viewpoint, 
in characters, and in action. 



106 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



Walther, fleeing from Etzel's court with Hildegund and a 
large treasure, is overtaken and attacked in a narrow ravine by 
Gunther and his men. One by one the redoubtable hero slays 
his foes. When Kamalo is killed by "Walther, the former's 
nephew Kimo endeavors to take blood-revenge. This nephew is 
a brother 's son ( 686 ff. ) . Much more emotional content is given 
to the relation between Hagen and his sister's son Patafried. 
Hagen is a passive spectator, for he sulks because of a taunt from 
the King, whom he had warned against attacking Walther. See- 
ing his nephew preparing to take up the combat, Hagen breaks 
his silence to restrain him from rushing to certain death. When 
his appeals prove vain, bitter tears wet his lap as he thinks of 
the grief which is in store for his sister, Patafried 's mother : 

846 Sextus erat Patavrid. Soror hunc germana Haganonis 
Protulit ad lucem. Quern dum prodedere vidit, 
Vocibus et precibus conatur avunculus inde 
Flectere proclamans: "Quonam ruis? Aspice mortem, 
Qualiter arridet ! Desiste ! En ultima. Parcae 
Fila legunt. O care nepos, te mens tua fallit. 
Desine ! Waltharii tu denique viribus impar. ' ' 
********* 

Heu mihi, care nepos, quid matri, perdite mandas? 

********* 

Sic ait et gremium lacrimis conspersit obortis, 
Et ' 1 Longum, f ormose, vale ! ' ' singultibus edit. 

When he and Gunther alone survive and he yields to the King's 
entreaties that he confront Walther, he justifies this violation of 
their long-standing friendship by declaring that that bond was 
broken by the slaying of his nephew and has been superseded by 
the duty of blood-revenge : 

1272 "Cetera fors tulerim, si vel dolor unus abesset: 

Unice enim carum, rutilum, blandum, pretiosum 
Carpsisti norem mucronis falce tenellum. 
Haec res est, pactum quae destruvit prior almum, 
Idcircoque gazam cupio pro foedere nullam. 
Sitne tibi soli virtus, volo discere in armis, 
Deque tuis manibus caedem perquiro nepotis. ' ' 



1922] 



Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epie 



107 



That he did not perform this duty more promptly exposes him 
to criticism even in later times; in the Nibelungenlied Hildebrand 
answers Hagen's jibes with the taunt: 

2344 "nu wer was der ufme schilde vor dem Waskensteine saz, 
do im von Spanje Walther so vil der friunde sluoc? 
ouch habt ir noch ze zeigen an iu selben genuoc. ' ' 

A hundred years later than the Waltharilied the Ruodlieb was 
written. This poem, like the former, is foreign in language 
only — the content is German. On his journey home Ruodlieb 
meets his nephew, whom he cordially takes in charge at once, 
and whose marriage he furthers and supervises. It is evident 
from the conversation of fragment XII 74 that the circumstances 
in which Ruodlieb finds his nephew are unhappy. The uncle 
rescues him from this plight, supplies him with a servant and 
clothes, and when he asks the nephew to come along home with 
him the youth cries for joy : 

XII, 8 Cui cor mox hylarat, pre leticia quoque fiebat. 

At home we catch a picture of their intimacy : 

XI, 18 Eotlieb contribulis conuiua fuit socialis, 

Ex uno pane comedunt, una quoque lance, 
Ex uno cyato biberant communiter ambo. 

Unfortunately only fragments of this poem are preserved. The 
inference seems justifiable that the nephew had been in the fos- 
terage of his uncle from early childhood. 75 

From the earliest times the minstrel was the bearer of literary 
tradition, and the popular epics, which we have first to consider, 
are his products. The earliest of these which contain the uncle- 
nephew motif are the Herzog Ernst, Salman und Morolf, and 
Orendel. There are numerous neven in the Konig Rather also 
(3332, 3432, 3440, 3583, 4203, etc.), but the exact relationships 
are left so undetermined as to be of no value for our purposes. 

74 According to Seiler; IX, according to the arrangement of Laistner, 
Kogel, and Heyne. Cf . Heyne 's Eudlieb, pp. 56 ff. 

75 Cf. Kegel's conclusion (Gesch. d. d. Lit., Strassburg, 1894, I, 2. Teil, 
389), "dass der Neffe ein Waisenkind ist und seinen stehenden Aufenthalt 
von jeher im Hause Euodliebs gehabt hat." We have found the custom 
of fosterage to be a characteristic phenomenon of the uncle-nephew rela- 
tionship, even when the parents of the nephew are living. 



108 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



In the Herzog Ernst the uncle and nephew spring into great 
prominence. This epic deals with a Kaiser whose nephew, Hein- 
rich, stands high in his favor : 

Ernst A, 26 der was des keiseris neve 

ind was ellenclich sin ratgeve. 

Not only is he pointed out as the Kaiser's counselor {Ernst B, 
652; D, LIV, 26), but also as his favorite (trut). "When the 
Kaiser becomes fond of his stepson Ernst, the nephew's passion- 
ate jealousy is aroused : 

Ernst B, 666 wan man in ze hove niht vernam 

so wol alse do vorn. 

Fearing that Ernst might take first place in his uncle's affec- 
tions, the nephew plots to turn the Kaiser against him, and finally 
succeeds in engendering hostility between the two. Ernst breaks 
into the room where the Kaiser is holding secret conference with 
his nephew and slays the latter, while the former escapes into a 
nearby chapel. In Ernst B the Kaiser thus grieves over his 
nephew 's death : 

1361 "Du riuwest mich sere! 

ich enwil ouch nimmer mere 

in mime herzen werden fro, 

ich enreche dich also 

daz man immer da von sagen N mac. ' 5 

1378 "Daz sol mich riuwen immer mere 

die wil ich den lip han, 
daz er ie getorste began, 
diz laster an dem mage min. " 

In Ernst D, a version differing widely from the others, Ernst 
taunts the fleeing Kaiser for deserting his nephew and leaving 
him to his death : 

LVII, 35 Do Ernst tzu der tur indrang, 

Der keyser von dem wege sprang 
In eyne cappelle, 
Die tur verslos er snelle; 
Heinrich die burde eine trug, 
Ernst das heubt ym abslug: 
Damit rieff er den kaiser an, 
Es ware tzeglich getan, 
Das er so liesse sinen mag, 
Der muste liden dissen pag. 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epio 



109 



Though the versions A and B do not specify the exact meaning 
of neve, version D explicitly states that Heinrich is the Kaiser's 
sw ester sun (XXVII, 38). 

In the Orendel, Ise, who accompanies the hero to Mindolt's 
castle to recover his stolen wife, recognizes a maternal uncle in 
the old gatekeeper, Herzog Achill. Hearing Achill's voice, the 
nephew exclaims: 

3486 .... "kuss mich an minen mund, 

ich bin diner swester sun, 
diner swester Elizabet! " 

Achill, seeking to obtain an escort for the two from the King, 
pretends that both of them are sons of his sister (3553 ff.), 
though Orendel is in no way related to him ; his motive is evi- 
dently to present the strongest possible case for them to the King. 

In the Salman unci Morolf, when Fore marches upon Salman 
to gain possession of the latter 's wife Sarnie, and is defeated and 
captured, it is his nephew Elias who sends him the magic ring 
with which he gains Salme's affection, and his own freedom. 
Later, after the final defeat and death of Fore, another nephew 
of his, a neighboring heathen king, makes war upon Salman in 
order to wreak revenge (3072 ff.) . 

In the Nibelungenlied and the. Gudrun the product of the 
minstrel rises to the level of the great national epic. Although 
not written until about 1200, the Nibelungenlied reaches back 
in origin to a remote past, its elements being on the whole of 
greater antiquity than those of any of the epics already consid- 
ered. The Nibelungenlied is replete with uncles and nephews, 
all of whom are related in the female line. Thus Ortwin is 
Dankwart's and Hagen's sister's son; he is identified through 
his uncles (Hag en-en swester sun, 119, 2), and, is usually in asso- 
ciation with one or both of them (81, 3; 125, 1; 162, 1; 173, 3; 
178, 1 ff. ; 201, 1 ; 796, 1, etc.) . Kriemhilde's first son (by Sifrit) 
is named after his maternal uncle, Gunther. The second son 
(by Etzel) was to have been sent to his mother's brothers to be 
reared (1914 ff.) had not the tragedy at Etzel's court intervened. 



110. University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol.10 



It is important to notice that in each case the child was expected 
to take after the maternal kin rather than after the father. Of 
Kriemhilde ? s first son we are told : 

716 Den ilte man do toufen unci gab im einen namen, 

Gunther, nach sinem oeheim: cles dorft' er sich niht schamen. 
geriet ' er nach den magen, daz waer ' im wol ergan. 
do zoh man in mit vlize; daz was von sculden getan. 

Etzel says of his son Ortlieb, with reference to the child's mater- 
nal uncles : 

1915 Gevaeht er nach dem kiinne, er wirt ein kuene man, 

rich und vil edele, stare und wol getan. 

This same idea is expressed again in the Rosengarten (D, 127, 1), 
and in Meleranz (169). 76 

When the conquered Briinhilde is constrained to leave her 
land to go with Gunther to Burgundy, she turns the regency over 
to her uncle, her mother's brother : 

522, 1 Do sprach diu kiineginne: "wem laz' ich miniu lant? 
diu sol e hie bestiften min unt iuwer hant. " 
do sprach der kiinic edele: "nu heizet her gan 
der iu dar zuo gevalle, den sul wir voget wesen lan. " 

Ein ir hoehsten mage diu vrouwe bi ir sach 
(er was ir muoter bruoder), zuo dem diu maget sprach: 
"nu lat iu sin bevolhen diu blirge unt ouch diu lant. 
unze daz hie richte des kiinic Guntheres hant. ' ' 

Herrat, who is identified through her maternal aunt {diu 
Helch&n swester tohter), is reared by the latter, and is bound to 
her by the deepest love (1381, 1; 1389, 4). Bishop Pilgerin von 
Passau is a brother of Uote and thus maternal uncle of the Bur- 
gundian kings and of Kriemhilde. The niece and the nephews 
visit this uncle on their way to the land of the Huns (1296 ff . ; 

76 Cf. Kohler's review of Wilken 's "book: Het matriarchat ~bij de oude 
Ardbiern, Amsterdam, 1884, in Z. f. vgl. R., VI, 421 ff. : "Von grosser 
Bedeutung ist vor allem der Glaube, dass der miitterliche Oheim zum 
Neffen in besonders naher Beziehung steht, so dass seine Eigenschaften 
auf den Neffen iibergingen (Matriarchat, 30 ff.). Was ist dies anders, als 
der Eechtsgedanke, der noch bei den alten Germanen waltete, nach 
Tacitus. ' ' 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 111 

1628 ff.), and the uncle sends a message to his sister's sons when 
the minstrels bearing Etzel's invitation pass through Passau 
(1427 ff.). Now Pilgerin is an historical personage; he was 
uisiiop oi Passau from 971 to 991, and he was probably injected 
into the Nibelungen legend by some grateful minstrel who had 
enjoyed his hospitality. We have thus by chance an accurate and 
relatively late date at which the uncle-nephew tie was still felt 
to be particularly close. 

Sigestap is identified as "Dietriches swester sun" (2283, 3). 
The strongest bond between uncle and nephew in the Nibelun- 
genlied, however, is that between Hildebrant and "Wolf hart. 
When Hildebrant, delegated to inquire into Rudiger's death, is 
on the point of going to the Burgundians unarmed, his sister's 
son, sensitive as to his uncle's honor and fearing that this will 
lead to his humiliation, severely reproaches him. The uncle, 
elsewhere always the best in counsel as in combat, gives heed and 
obeys : 

2250, 1 do garte sich der wise durch des tumben rat. 

When later Volker taunts Wolfhart until the latter cannot 
restrain himself, the uncle throws his arms around him to hold 
him back, in order that he may not incur Dietrich's displeasure 
and punishment ; for Dietrich has enjoined his men not to fight 
the Burgundians. However, when Volker 's final taunt, ' ' Release 
the lion, Master," proves too much, and Wolfhart breaks loose 
and rushes forward, the uncle is still quicker, for 

2274, 2 er wolde in vor im lazen niht komen in den strit, 

not, indeed, to gain the honor of being the first in the attack, 
but from the double motive of protecting his nephew in the fight 
and shielding him from Dietrich's anger for having begun the 
conflict against orders. In the destructive combat which now 
breaks out, Wolfhart and Giselher fell each other. The greatest 
grief of his life befalls the uncle as he sees his nephew mortally 
wounded : 



112 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



2298, 3 Hildebrant der alte Wolfharten vallen sach: 

im waen ' vor sinem tode so rehte leide nie geschach. 

Do waren gar erstorben die Guntheres man 
und ouch die Dietriches. Hildebrant was gegan 
da Wolf hart was gevallen nider in daz pluot: 
er besloz mit armen den recken kiien' unde guot. 

Er wolde'n uzem huse mit im tragen dan: 

er was ein teil ze swaere, er muose in ligen lan. 

do blihte uz dem bluote der rewende man: 

er sach wol daz im gerne sin neve het geholfen dan. 

The last concern of the dying nephew is for the uncle 's safety : 

2301 Do sprach der totwunde: "vil lieber oeheim min, 

ir miigt an disen ziten mir niht frum gesin: 
nu hiietet iuch vor Hagenen: ja dunket es mich guot. 
er treit in sime herzen einen grimmigen muot. 

And he seeks to comfort the uncle with the thought that there is 
no cause to mourn his death, since he has died gloriously at the 
hands of a king, and has exacted the bitter tribute of a hundred 
lives from the enemy. 

In the Klage, which is a continuation of the Nibelungenlied 
and probably of somewhat later origin, Bishop Pilgerin grieves 
most deeply for his sister's sons (3357 ff.), and we are told that 
he had a Latin epic written as a monument to his nephews : 

4295 Von Pazoue der bischof Pilgerin 
durh liebe der neven sin 
hiez scriben ditze maere, 
wie ez ergangen waere, 
in latinischen buochstaben 

Such change in viewpoint as can be noted in the Klage is in the 
direction of a slight blurring of the earlier conception of the 
uncle and nephew relationship. Sigestap, who in the Nibelun- 
genlied is Dietrich's sister's son, is only a counsin in the Klage 
(1494). More noticeable is the fact that, although Hildebrant 
mourns for his sister's son Wolf hart (1653 ff.), Dietrich's grief 
is far more deep and passionate, and it is a reversal of the roles 
that the former should comfort the latter: 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 113 

1751 Do sprach meister Hildebrant 

' ' owe, vil edel wigant, 
wan lat ir iuwer klagen stan? 
solden wir des frumen han, 
so klaget ich immer mere 
disen degen here: 
er was miner swester sun. 
herre, irn suit es niht tuon: 
von jamer wendet iuwern muot. 
klage diu ist niemen guot. ' ' 

The net of relationships in the plot of the Gudrun is inextri- 
cably tangled, there being but scant data for determining just 
what they are. Horant, the nephew of King Hetel and of Wate, 
is sister's son to both. It is strange, then, that Wate, though he 
calls Hetel's son Ortwin "neve," never indicates his relationship 
to Hetel 's daughter Gudrun ; and stranger still is the indistinct- 
ness in the relationship between Hetel and Wate, whom we should 
expect to be brothers. The term neve is used indiscriminately 
between Hetel, Wate, and Fruote. There is no uncle-nephew 
episode in the Gudrun comparable to those in the epics already 
discussed. The most important of such relations is that between 
Hetel and Horant. The latter is identified after his mother and 
her brother, no reference being made to his father : 

1112, 3 sin muoter diu was swester Hetelen des richen. 

Still earlier in the epic Horant is identified through his maternal 
brother Wate, and we are told that he received the crown of 
Denmark from Hetel (206). When the latter decides to send 
messengers to Ireland to sue for the hand of Hilde, he at once 
summons his sister's son Horant (216), who undertakes the 
mission with Wate, Fruote, Morunc, and Irolt, all of them rela- 
tives and vassals of the king. The sister's son is prominent, too, 
in the expedition to avenge the slaying of his uncle Hetel. 

We have concise evidence of an unconsciously changing view- 
point when it is possible to compare earlier with later versions 
in the historical development of one and the same epic plot. The 
Gudrun affords such an opportunity. In the older version of 
this epic Hetel was slain by Hartmut, not, as in our version, by 



114 University of California Publications in Modem Philology [Vol. 10 

Ludwig. And Hartmut was in turn killed by Horant, so that 
originally Hetel was avenged by his sister's son. 77 

We now come to the epics of the Dietrich cycle, which sink 
again to the level of the minstrel tone above which the Nibelun- 
genlied and the Gudrun had raised themselves. The exact dates 
of these popular epics are for the most part not determined, but 
we know that they all belong to the 13th century. 

Early among the epics of this group, and but loosely attached 
to them, is the Ortnit. In this epic, the father does not figure. 
The mother, who presides over the family group, is united to 
her son by the tie of deepest affection ; and the place of highest 
regard and influence among the hero's male relatives is occupied 
by the mother's brother. From beginning to end, Ortnit 's mater- 
nal uncle, King Yljas, plays a leading role. He tells Ortnit of 
a beautiful princess, whose father, King Machorel, however, be- 
heads all her suitors. But when his nephew expresses his deter- 
mination to win this very girl, 

Ort. A, Do sprach der kiinee von Bieuzen 78 "nn si ez gote gekleit, 
17 daz ich dir disiu maere hiute han geseit, 

din nach dinem tode dir uf erstanden sint. 

ich widerriete ez gerne: du bist miner swester kint. " 

Nevertheless the uncle agrees to help Ortnit carry out his resolve, 
whatever the dangers may be : 

Ort. A, do sprach Yljas van Eiuzen 1 ' du bist miner swester kint. 
28, 2 von rehte sol ich wagen bi dir lip unt leben. 

ich veil dir fiinf tusent ritter nnd ouch mich selben geben. ' ' 

The nephew is grateful for this loyal help. It is significant, how- 
ever, that he considers it only his due : 

Ort. A, Do sprach der Lamparte 79 ' ' du hast in kurzer f rist 

29 mir daz wol erzeiget, des du pair schuldic bist. 

getriuvver friunde hilfe diu ist vil vciinniclich, 
und sent mich got her widere, ich mere dir din kiinicrich. ' ' 

77 "Der ganze Sagenstoff, " says Hartung (op. cit., 18), "ist von einem 
tiberarbeiter . . . umgestaltet worden. Er konnte dabei um so leichter 
das alte zum Teil durch die Blutrache wohl begriindete Verhaltnis der 
Kampfenden zerreissen, als diese zu seiner Zeit nicht mehr die Bedeutung 
hatte, wie bei der Entstehung der Sage. Immerhin ist jenes aber noch 
ofters im heutigen Texte deutlich erkennbar. ' ' 

7 s Ylias. 79 Ortnit. 



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Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 



115 



Ortnit formally chooses his uncle as chief advisor and calls him 
father, although his real father is alive : 

Ort. A, "Oeheim unde herre, " sprach der kiinec Yljas 
54 ' ' sint du yon starkem guote die grozen kraf t has 

und ouch so riche wirde, nu kius dir einen man, 
der dir geraten kunne: an wen wilt du dick lan?" 

Do sprach der Lamparte ' ' ich bin diner swester kint. 

sit daz die f iirsten alle in unserm gwalte sint 

ich wil dich ze vater kiesen: du bist der vater min. 

diu liute und ouch mich selben enphilhe ich uf die triuwe din. ' ' 

At the storming of King Machorel 's citadel Ortnit asks his uncle 
to carry the banner, on the ground that it was not fitting for any 
one else to do so {Ort. A, 296 ff. ; Ort. C, 309 ft.). In the follow- 
ing battle uncle and nephew fight side by side. During a tem- 
porary absence of Ortnit, Yljas is wounded and left lying for 
dead. Ortnit returns in haste and nurses him back to health. 
When he offers to relieve him of the banner by carrying it him- 
self, Yljas insists upon retaining it, and they fight on together. 
"When, shortly after, Ortnit, by a clever ruse, gains possession of 
his beloved princess and carries her off in flight, he is overtaken 
by the pursuing heathen, and has to fight them single-handed. 
He is in sore straits when at last his uncle appears on the scene ; 
Ortnit, exhausted from the unequal combat, hands to him his 
marvelous sword Rosen and with it Yljas puts the heathen to 
flight. 

The Biterolf und Dietleip also comes early among the epics 
of the Dietrich cycle, and in it the uncle-nephew motif is given 
great prominence. Having surreptitiously left his wife and his 
home to go to Etzel's court, the father, Biterolf, encounters his 
sister's son Walther. Neither recognizes the other, and when 
Walther denies the uncle passage through his land, a combat 
ensues. Fortunately the uncle recognizes his nephew before harm 
is done, and both rejoice at the happy issue. All that day and 
night the two talk with each other, and daybreak finds them lying 
side by side, still conversing while the others sleep. Biterolf 
cannot yield to his nephew's urgent desire that he remain for a 
longer visit ; in departing, he charges his nephew to watch over 



116 University of California Publications in Modem Philology [Vol. 10 



his wife, his men, and his land during his absence (787 ff.). We 
are told repeatedly that Walther faithfully performs this charge 
(806; 2100 ff.; 2168 ff.) ; and the deserted wife feels that in 
Biterolf's nephew she has a firm support (2106). 

Through an unusual chance, Walther again becomes arrayed 
against his uncle. On his way to find his absent father, Dietleip, 
Biterolf's son, is insulted by Gunther, and later he returns, sup- 
ported by an army of relatives, to take revenge. As a means 
of strengthening his forces Gunther invites a large number of 
guests to a festival, among them Walther; after they have par- 
taken of his bread and wine Gunther calls upon them for help 
against the enemy. Under the obligation of accepted hospitality 
Walther offers the services of himself and his men. 

To Dietleip and Biterolf the bonds of kinship seem badly 
wrenched when they see the latter 's nephew in the hostile ranks 
of the approaching Burgundians. Biterolf exclaims : 

9924 ' ' sin muoter was diu swester min, 

wie sich daz verkeret hat 
daz er nu Gunthere gestat ! ' ' 

Biterolf sends a message of regret and complaint that Walther 
"die verchsippe lat," and the messenger brings back from the 
latter an explanation of the circumstances and a declaration of 
loyalty to his uncle and cousin, to whom he proposes that they 
avoid each other in the combat (9967 ff.). 

While Biterolf and Walther remain at heart faithful to kin 
duty, we find in Witige and Nantwin the unusual spectacle of 
an uncle and sister's son in genuine hostility, Witige in Diet- 
leip 's camp, Nantwin with Gunther. That it is a feud of long 
standing between the two we learn from a reference to Witige 's 
past inability to overcome Nantwin (7718 ff.). In Gunther 's 
council the unnatural sister 's son says t 

6582 nu ist ez an die zite komen 

daz wir fiillen unser schrin; 
wan Witege der oeheim min 
mit mir dock stritet umb daz lant. 
kume ick in sin wiegewant, 
ich fiiere immer deste baz. " (Cf. 8520 ff.) 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 117 



His disloyal attitude provokes pointed comment from Riiediger: 

6591 "friunt sol friunde bi gestan, 

mir ist liep daz ich niht han 
f riunt, als ich iuch hoere jehen, 
die wider min willen wolden sehen 
in ir gewalt min sarwat: 
der neven han ich gerne rat. ' ' 

This keen thrust of sarcasm from his own comrade in arms evokes 
a general laugh at Nantwin's expense (6597 ff.). 

Hildebrant and his nephew Wolfhart bear the usual intimate 
relationship to each other in this epic. We first find the uncle 
gently chiding Wolfhart for taking too lightly the approaching 
battle against Gunther (7285 ff.)- Hildebrant has assigned a 
special opponent to every one, excepting only his beloved nephew, 
whom he desires to shield. Wolfhart demands to know whom 
he is to oppose ; and when he is detailed to fight Gere, he objects 
vociferously to the attempt to spare him through assignment to 
fight a man of no known prowess. 

Noticing that Dietrich, who is to oppose Sifrit, shows signs 
of fear, Wolfhart confidentially tells his uncle (7788 ff.) . Hilde- 
brant leads Dietrich away for a private lesson. Wolfhart, con- 
cerned about his uncle and determined to be on hand if needed, 
rides after them and watches them from a distance. Hildebrant 
cures Dietrich of his passing faint-heartedness by forcing him 
into combat and thus warming his blood ; but fearing Dietrich 's 
displeasure against Wolfhart, he refuses to reveal the source of 
his information until the King promises to bear no ill will in 
the matter (7940 ff.). 

Hildebrant 's love for his sister's son appears still more strik- 
ingly when the latter is captured by Stuotfuhs in the tournament 
with the Burgundians. Hildebrant is disconsolate (8878 ff.), 
and bears the news to Dietrich, who tries to comfort him ; but he 
is determined that his nephew shall be rescued : 

9002 swie alter mir turnieren wert 

doch muoz ich zuo zin dar in: 
ich hilf e minem neven hin 
mit biirgen ode mit ritterschaf t ! 



118 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol.10 



He urges that the peace which each side has agreed to preserve 
during the tournament be annulled, and his insistence prevails. 
In the ensuing battle he breaks through the ranks of the com- 
batants, and points out his nephew's captor to Dietrich, who 
succeeds in slaying him. 

9278 do was liebe genuoc 

geschehen Hildebrande: 
in duhte wie sin ande 
gar gerochen waere. 

Wolfhart, witnessing the fight, finally knocks down his guard 
and makes good his escape with the timely assistance of another 
uncle, Wolf win (9355 ff.). Hildebrant chides Wolfhart for his 
excessive zeal, admonishes him against a recurrence of his defeat, 
and remains shoulder to shoulder with him throughout the 
remainder of the fighting. He succeeds in recovering the won- 
derful sword which the enemy had wrested from Heime's hand, 
and he gives it to his nephew, denying Heime's request for its 
return. But when the latter casts a slur on Hildebrant by the 
remark, "If I had the sword there would be less talk," Wolfhart 
flares up, and requests his uncle to return the sword to Heime, 
with whom he offers to fight (12903 ff.). Hildebrant, however, 
is obdurate. 

A less important sister's son in this same epic is Boppe, 
repeatedly identified as " Herbortes swesterkint," and constantly 
associated with his uncle. so 

The only blood relationship pointed out in the Laurin und 
Walberan is that between the two heroes mentioned in the title. 
They address each other reciprocally as olieim, and there is no 
further specification of their kinship ; S1 but it seems apparent that 
we have here again the traditional uncle-nephew relation, and in 
it the whole plot centers. When Laurin is defeated and captured 
by Dietrich, word is sent at once to Laurin 's uncle, Walberan, 
the powerful dwarf-king in Armenia. He is greatly distressed 
when he receives this bad news and immediately assembles an 

so 6511 ff.; 7711 ff.; 9443 ff.; 10200 ff.; 11210 ff.; 11960 ff. 
si Walberan = Laurin 's oheim: 59, 327, 421, 622, 627, 636, 661, 694, 
1136, 1142, 1149. 1152; Laurin = Walberan '& oheim: 223, 482, 608, 648. 



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Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 



119 



army to liberate and avenge the captive nephew (II, 67 ff.). In 

the meantime Laurin and Dietrich have become fast friends and 

have sworn brotherhood. When Walberan 's messenger arrives 

to announce his approach, Laurin sends back a request that his 

uncle refrain from any harm to the country until he has arrived 

at Dietrich's capital, Bern (II, 419 ff.)- Walberan at once 

agrees, and when he reaches the gates of Bern, an affectionate 

meeting between uncle and nephew takes place (II, 601 ff.). 

Laurin thanks his uncle for the loyalty which led him to bring 

his army overseas to his rescue, expresses his undying gratitude, 

and asks his uncle to grant him a single request (II, 611 ff.). 

To this the uncle replies : 

II, 639 . . . . " din triiebesal 

wil ich wenden iiber al, 
als ich von rente tuon sol. 
dar umb gehabe dich wol; 
dar umbe bin ich uz kumen. 
ez kum ze schaden oder ze frumen, 
ich wende dir al dine not 
oder ich lige dar umbe tot. 
des soltu ouch gewert sin, 
swes du gerst, lieber oeheim min. ' ' 

Thereupon Laurin relates what has happened and asks his uncle 
to extend friendship likewise to Dietrich (II, 649 ff.). "Walberan 
is unpleasantly surprised, but finally yields, and offers knightly 
contests to the men of Bern under terms of peace. Nevertheless, 
so deep-seated is his resentment toward Dietrich that when he 
sees him, he forgets his promise, calls for his lance, and pushes 
the combat so bitterly that Hildebrant becomes alarmed for the 
safety of his king, and appeals to Laurin to intervene. Instruct- 
ing Hildebrant to do likewise with Dietrich, Laurin throws his 
arms around his uncle, and reminds him of his promise; Wal- 
beran relents and a complete reconciliation takes place, Dietrich 
and Walberan becoming fast friends. 

The epic Alphart's Tod, which has for its theme the war made 
upon Dietrich by Kaiser Ermenrich, distinguishes throughout 
between the paternal uncle (veter) and the maternal uncle 
(oheim). The paternal uncle, Ermenrich, determines to force 



120 University of California Publications in Modern, Philology [Vol, 10 



Dietrich to surrender his land to him and take it in fief, and 
upon the nephew's refusal, resorts to war. The Kaiser's coun- 
sellor, Heime, urges in vain that such action toward one thus 
related is unnatural. 

The hero, Alphart, is reared and cared for by his maternal 
uncle Hildebrant, his father being nowhere mentioned. Their 
relation is most affectionate, the uncle watching over the nephew 
with a father's solicitude. When Alphart volunteers to take the 
dangerous post of a picket against Ermenrich's hostile army, 
uncle and aunt do their utmost to restrain him from the under- 
taking, which, as it turns out, is to cost him his life. When, 
however, all efforts have failed and Frau Uote has tearfully 
dressed the nephew in his armor with her own hands, the uncle, 
unable to reconcile himself with Alphart 's certain loss, resolves 
upon a dangerous plan: disguising himself, he overtakes his 
nephew with the intention of defeating him and sending him 
home to safety. But in the ensuing combat he himself suffers 
defeat; and when he asserts his relationship Alphart takes this 
for a ruse, until the removal of Hildebrant 's helmet establishes 
his identity. Thereupon Alphart chides him for having at- 
tempted such an expedient, and the thwarted uncle returns home 
in sorrow. Unfortunately a gap of eleven pages in the manu- 
script (23-34) deprives us of an important part of our material 
in this case — the effect of the news of Alphart 's treacherous 
slaying upon his relatives. The first indication of what has 
transpired is found when Hildebrant and Nitger, another nephew 
(333, 1), are seen riding together to ask help for Dietrich. That 
they come from battle is indicated by the word sturmmilede 
(309, 4). Hildebrant watches over still another nephew, Wolf- 
hart, throughout the great battle in which Ermenrich is defeated 
(331 ff.). He keeps near him (429, 1), presses after him, and 
precedes him into the conflict for the purpose of protecting him ; 82 
and when Wolfhart loses his horse and is hard pressed, the uncle 
rescues him, catches a new mount, and helps him to safety (439- 
443). 

82 As in XL. 2274, 3, and Bit. 10617. 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epio 121 

Hildebrant's brother, the monk Ilsam, is shown mourning at 
the grave of his dead nephew Alphart. Though he has rendered 
important assistance in the battle against Ermenrich, he is never- 
theless forced to hide, for he has killed Dietrich's uncle and has 
thereby incurred his bitter enmity. It is only with the greatest 
difficulty that Dietrich is finally led to extend forgiveness (405- 
408). 

In Dietrich's Flucht we read again of the relentless and cruel 
warfare which Ermrich wages upon his nephew Dietrich. Erm- 
rich is only a paternal uncle, however, and is represented as a 
monster of greed, faithlessness, and tyranny (2414), who not 
only kills his brother Dietrich's sons (2467 ff.), but leaves his 
own son to die (2462 ff.). Although no sister's sons occur in 
this epic, we find an aunt, Helche, providing for the marriage 
of her niece, a sister's daughter, and increasing her dowry by 
the gift of an entire province (7551 ff.). 

In the Rdbenschlacht Dietrich leaves the dead bodies of his 
brother and his two charges, Etzel's sons, for a grim pursuit of 
the slayer, "Witige. The latter is accompanied by his sister 's son, 
Rienolt. Although his subsequent conduct flatly belies his words, 
the uncle professes to have fear only for his nephew's safety 
(931 ff.). Loudly calling to the fleeing pair, Dietrich appeals to 
their manhood to stop and give battle, pointing out to them that 
they are two to one. The nephew urges the uncle to stand with 
him and accept the challenge, but the frightened and cowardly 
Witige refuses ; and when Rienolt declares that then he will fight 
Deitrich single-handed, we have the rare and shameful spectacle 
of an uncle leaving his sister's son to his fate (943 ff.). Reinolt 
is quickly slain by Dietrich, who loses no time in the pursuit of 
Witige. As the bitterest taunt of all, Dietrich calls after the 
fleeing uncle, in the hope of checking his flight : 

957 ' ' Helt, waere dir nu leide, 

so raechestu die not. 
Reinolt iif der heide 
lit von minen handen tot. 
bistu. ein recke kiiene und maere, 
so richestu. in" sprach der Bernaere. 



122 University of California Publications in Modem Philology [Vol. 10 

Witige 's desertion of his sister 's son greatly heightens the impres- 
sion of Dietrich's terribly implacable vindictiveness, and is the 
best possible evidence of the abject terror with which Witige 
avoids his grim pursuer, in a flight which even the sea does not 
stop ; for he plunges into the waves, where he is received by an 
ancestress, the mermaid Wachilt (964). 

In the various versions of the Bosengarten, another of the 
popular epics of the Dietrich cycle, Hildebrant and his sister's 
sons once again become conspicuous. The nephews, we are told 
(Bos. B, 127), resemble their uncle. Hildebrant appears con- 
stantly as the mentor of his nephew Wolfhart, praising or cor- 
recting him (Bos. A, 182, 345), and stirring him to victory in 
combat (Bos. A, 198 ff.), but always concealing his affection 
under rough words. When Wolfhart defeats Hagen and, flushed 
with victory, wants to fight on, the uncle leads him by the arm 
from further danger. When Dietrich refuses to fight Sifrid, 
and Wolfhart, seeing his uncle's tears of vexation, offers to face 
Sifrid himself, the uncle refuses to permit the unequal contest, 
but asks the nephew's assistance in case he should himself get 
into trouble in attempting to rouse Dietrich's fighting spirit 
(Bos. D 1 , XVIII, 13, 1). It is further noteworthy that when 
Dietrich sends his brother to secure help, he directs him to ask 
Gotelind for her sister's son (Bos. B, 87 ff.). 

Comparison of the various versions of this epic in chrono- 
logical order shows an increasing prominence of the father. In 
Bos. A the father of Hildebrant 's nephews is not mentioned at 
all ; in the later Bos. B his name is Amelolt, and he specially 
commends his sons to their uncle's care as they depart for the 
adventure in the Bosengarten, while he himself stays behind to 
guard the homeland : 

Eos D, 81, 4 "So enphilhe ich dir wider die lieben siine min, 
Wolfhart und Sigestap, diner swester kint. 
du wizzest, lieber bruoder, daz sie mir liep sint. ' ' 

There is also an increasing irregularity in the use of relation- 
ship terms; for whereas the terms neve and oheim are used in 
Bos. A and B, in the later versions B 1 and F both uncle and 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 123 

sister's sons are called veter. And in Ros. D and D 1 Volker is 
identified in the impossible relationship of Kriemhilde 's swester- 
sun (45, 2). 83 

The Virginal stands out both for its confused and inconsistent 
use of relationship terms, and for unusual prominence of the 
paternal uncle and the brother's son. 84 Hildebrant and Wolf- 
hart, however, traditionally maternal uncle and nephew, likewise 
figure in the Virginal. Their chaffing of each other at times 
degenerates into quarrel, but on the whole their gruffness ill 
conceals their love (898; 983 ff.). 

Less prominence is given to the uncle-nephew motif in the 
epics Sigenot and Wolfdietrich. In the Sigenot, the giant of 
that name is impelled by a burning desire to avenge the death 
of his nephew Grinen at the hand of Dietrich (3, 1 ; 6, 6 ; 11, 7 ff.) . 
In Wolfd. A the uncle, Hugdietrich, an utterly unscrupulous 
character, who orders his son killed and then accuses his tool, is 
hostile also toward his sister's son (6 ff.). In Wolfd. B the giant 
Helle wants to kill Wolfdietrich for the slaying of his neve 
Boumgarten (188 ff.). In Wolfd, D two other sister's sons 
appear. One of these Delfian, nephew of King Merzian, is killed 
by Wolfdietrich in a battle with the Saracens near Jerusalem, 
and the uncle leaves no stone unturned to accomplish revenge. 
The other is a nephew who accompanies and assists the Burggraf 
when the latter, later on in the epic (VIII, 288 ff.), attacks Wolf- 
dietrich. 

Having considered the popular epic, we now turn to the 
court epic, the product of chivalry. The court epics were written 
within the 12th and 13th centuries. Just as in the social life of 
this period, so also in poetry, France was the model and source 
of inspiration for Germany. Thus it is that the German epic 
of chivalry rests directly upon French literature, irrespective 
of whether the material is of antique, oriental, or British-Celtic 
origin. Sometimes we have to do with a more or less faithful 

83 The editor, Holz, comments on this passage as follows (p. 244) : 
( 'Als Kriemhilts Neffen konnte ihn ein Mensch, der seine Gedanken bei- 
sammen hatte, nicht bezeiehnen, da K. niemals eine Schwester hat. ' ' 

84 Cf. 307, 7 ff.; 588, 3 ff.; 387 ff.; 199 ff. 



124 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 

translation of a French original. Again, we find epics which 
are free inventions, but have been suggested or influenced by 
French models. In general it may be asserted that the work of 
the German epic-writers is not a slavish translation or imitation, 
but a reshaping or recreating that displays a great amount of 
independence. It lies outside the scope of the present under- 
taking to make a detailed comparative study of the German epics 
and their sources. Often there is no French source extant, and 
in many cases where we have to do with epics which are largely 
German inventions, such as the Jilngere Titurel, Daniel, Gavel, 
Krone, Demantin, Tandareis und Flordibel, Meier am, Seifrid 
de Ardemont, and Wigamur, it will never be possible to deter- 
mine to what extent on the one hand French influence has been 
effective and on the other hand German social organization is 
reflected. Because of this foreign influence, as well as because 
of its greater artificiality, the court epic must be considered only 
as secondary evidence. But it must also be pointed out that 
influence has not been exerted in one direction only. French 
scholars, accepting the results of the investigations of Pio Rajna, 
Gaston Paris, and others, now commonly concede that the French 
popular epic is of Germanic origin, and that it reveals traces of 
Teutonic law and custom. 85 It was not until the 9th century 
that French poetry had finally and definitely separated from 
German poetry. In view of historical evidence of the promi- 
nence of the avunculate among the Germanic tribes at the time 
of Tacitus (cf. below, 135 ff.) and the occurrence of the uncle- 
nephew motif in the earliest documents of Germanic literature, 
it is much more probable that the French popular epic has bor- 
rowed this motif from German than that the reverse has occurred, 
if indeed that motif was not indigenous in both countries. If, 
as the writer believes, the evidence of matrilineal conditions which 
both classes of epics preserve may be considered Indo-European 

85 Cf. GTaston Paris: Romania, XIII, 610: "Nos chansons de geste ont 
un caractere germanique et par 1 'usage meme auquel elles doivent 1 'exist- 
ence, et par 1 'esprit qui les anime, et par le milieu ou elles se sont deve- 
loppees. " Also L. Petit de Julleville: Hist, de la Langue et de la Lit- 
terature frangaise, Paris, 1910, 55: "II n'est plus permis aujourd'hui de 
nier 1 'origine germanique de notre litterature epique, et c 'est un point sur 
lequel les erudits francais semblent d 'accord avec les allemands. " 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epio 125 

in origin, the extent of international influence in the epic is not 
a matter of great moment. 80 

The immediate forerunners of the court epic are the Alexan- 
derlied and the Rolandslied. In Lamprecht's Alexander (ca. 
1130) we find that the hero is named after his mother's brother 
(Alex. Str. Ill ft*.). In Ulrich's Alexanderlied, written a cen- 
tury and a half later, Negusar is identified after his maternal 
uncle King Ninus (8217 ff.), and Kassander is pointed out as 
sivester suon of Alexander (23605). Furthermore, when Alex- 
ander has a bad dream in which he is stabbed to the heart and 
thereupon sees his mother, the dream is interpreted to him to 
mean, 

23605 " diner lieben swester suon 

hat iibel gedaht an dir tuon. ' ' 

but no further use is made of the incident. 

The Rolandslied, like its French source, the Chanson de 
Roland, glorifies the relationship between Karl and his sister's 
son Roland. The Old French chanson has been adequately dis- 
cussed by Farnsworth. 87 Comparison with the German version 
shows no noteworthy differences in the treatment of relationships. 
The story of the Rolandslied is retold in later epics known as 
Karl der Grosse, by Strieker, and the Karlmeinet, the latter hav- 
ing been written by an anonymous poet nearly two centuries 
later than the Rolandslied and being in reality a compilation 
from a number of sources including a later version of the 
Rolandslied which is not extant. Neither of these differs mate- 
rially in plot or viewpoint from the original so far as they cover 
the same ground. We shall consider the three versions together. 

Since the uncle-nephew relationship forms the warp and woof 
of these epics, it is hardly possible to give an adequate account 
of it without a review of the entire epics. It is necessary to be 
as brief as possible. 

How prominent the young nephew is in the councils of his 
uncle is shown by the complaint which Genelun makes : 



se Cf. below, 167 ff., 173. 
87 Op. cit., passim. 



126 University of California Publications in Modern- Philology [Vol. 10 



Boh, 1104 "thinen vursten ist iz alien leit 

thaz thu in thinen grozen wizzen 
unsih alle last sizzen. 
iz get uns ane thie ere 
nune zemet niht, lieber herre; 
thin neve Kuolant 
uberruof et uns alle samt. ' ' 

(Cf. Karlm. 396, 30 ff.; 432 b, 36.) 

Karl's favoritism toward Roland is the subject of criticism by 
Oliver in Karl der Grosse, when the latter quarrels with Roland 
over the honor of fighting the dangerous foe Ospinal. Oliver 
ascribes the emperor's partiality to the fact that Roland is his 
sister's son, and wishes that he, too, were a nephew, to receive 
favored treatment : 

A 413 b, 64 Olyuere begunde dat sere claen, 

Want ir Karlles suster son seyt 
Dar vmb deot hey vren willen alle zyt. 
Were ich eyn syner neuen, 
He soulde mir dat vechten geuen. 

Oliver is so vexed that he blows his horn and leaves Karl's court 
with all his followers. Karl, regretting this, asks his nephew as 
a special favor to yield precedence to Oliver, and loath as he is 
to give up the honor of the combat, Roland not only yields to 
his uncle 's wishes but lends Oliver his precious sword Durendart 
(414, 19 ff.). 

When the question of the sending of a messenger to bear an 
ultimatum to Marsilie is being discussed, Roland impetuously 
springs up and asks to be sent ; but the emperor is unwilling to 
expose him to so much danger. Finally Karl acts upon his 
nephew 's suggestion that the latter 's step-father Genelun be sent. 
Genelun, seeking to avoid his selection from cowardly fear, makes 
his final appeal to Karl in the name of his son Baldewin, who is 
also Karl's sister's son: 

Rol, 1442 Genelun viel theme keisere zu vuozen. 

' ' herre, ' ' sprach er, ' ( mahte ih noh geniezen, 
thin swester is min wif. 
und verliese ih then lif, 



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Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 



127 



so nimet Kuolant 

al min erve zuo siner hant: 

er verstozet thiner swester sune. 

In his indignant denial of this imputation Roland points out 
that he would not so ill repay his uncle who had fostered him 
from childhood: 

Sol., 1480 ih neplege niet untriiwen. 

so mahte then keiser ruwen 

thaz er mih gezogen hat 

unde niiuet mih thikke an sinen rat. 

Karl is overcome with grief when Genelun, who is inwardly 
plotting revenge against Roland, suggests that the latter be left 
behind to rule in Spain, 88 a suggestion to which the uncle must 
assent, since all the nobles are agreed : 

Boh, 2965 ther keiser harte erbleihte 

thaz houbet er nither neihte, 
thaz gehorde vone ime noh, 
thaz gesiune ime enzoh, 
vile trurlichen er saz. 
sih verwandelote allez thaz an ime was. 
(Cf. Karl d. Gr., 3505.) 

At this critical juncture the emperor turns frequently to prayer 
for his nephew, whom he calls at various times "mine huote" 
{Rol, 1310; Karl d. Gr., 3842) and "mine zesewe hant" (Rol., 
2974). With first thought for the emperor's honor, Roland does 
not hesitate for a moment to accept the perilous post; but his 
uncle 's grief is profound : 

Boh, 3216 ther keiser weinete vile sere. 

vile thikke er in kuste; 

er thruhte in ane sine bruste, 

er beswief in mit then armen. 

er sprah: "nu muoze iz got erbarmen, 

thaz ih thih hie muoz lazen. 

jane mah ih niht thar zuo gebenmazen 

thaz ih tha, fure name, 

helet, thaz ih thih tagelichen sahe. ' ' 

Except in the Karlm. (451, 11 ff.), where Karl is pleased at WelHV 
(Genelun 's) suggestion, since he suspects no treason; nevertheless here 
too the parting is bitter. 



128 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



At their parting, 

Karl d. Gr., 3991 Da wart von in beiden, 

do si sich muosen scheiden, 
ein jamer stare und also groz 
daz man den klegelichen doz 
iiber eine mile vernam. (Cf. Karlm. 
A 451 b, 41.) 

Left behind in Spain, Eoland is attacked by an overwhelming 
force of the heathen and in sore straits blows a mighty blast on 
his horn. At its sound, 

Eol., 6075 ther keiser begunde vore angesten swizen: 
er kom ein teil uz sinen wizen, 
er unthulte harte: 

thaz har prah er uz there swarte. (Cf. Karl d. Gr., 
7108 ff., 7975 ff.; Karlm. 458 b, 44 ff.) 

The emperor's worst fears are confirmed when he reaches the 
scene of the battle ; taking Roland up in his arms, 

Eol., 7508 er begonde in wantelen 

al hine unde here, 
vile innehlichen sprah er: 
' ' owi vile lieber neve, 
wie ungerne ih nu lebe! 
want scolte ih zuo thir in thaz graf ! 
thu ware mines alteres staf : 
mirne gescah nie so leithe. 
thu wariz allez eine. 
thu ware min zesewiu hant. 
****** 

thaz bluot floz ime vone then ougen 
uf then stein er gesaz: 
ienoh hiute ist er naz, 
tha thaz bluot ane floz. (Cf. Karl d. Gr., 
8322 ff.; Karlm. 465 b, 66 ff.) 

From now on the Kaiser thinks of nothing but revenge ; it is his 
one impulse both in the defeat which he inflicts upon the heathen 
and in the trial of the traitor Genelun. In connection with this 
trial we find an uncle-nephew relationship in the German epics 
which does not exist in the French source. 89 When Karl desires 



89 In the French Ch. de E. (361, 362 ) Pinabel is merely Genelun 's friend 
and peer. 



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Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 



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Genelun 's punishment at the trial, the latter 's nephew bravely 
steps forward and demands the right of defending his uncle in 
an ordeal (Rot., 8785; Karlm., 521, 25 ff.). His loyalty to his 
uncle is expressed in the words: 

Karl d. Gr., 11789 er wolte in lebendec bringen 
hin wider ze Kerlingen, 
oder bi im tot geligen. 

In the bitter combat of the ordeal, which turns against Pinabel, 
the latter is strongly urged to sacrifice Genelun and restore him- 
self to grace. But he prefers death to desertion of his uncle : 

Eol., 8960 "thurh Genelune kom ih here. 

nemag ih ime niht gethingen, 
sone wile ih niht liegen. 
nemah iz niwet bezzere werthen, 
ih wile thurh ine ersterben." (Cf. Karl d. Gr. 
12031 ff.) 

In the Karlmeinet the traitor Wellis (Genelun) has the support 
of two sisters 7 sons, 90 Pynabel and Herffen, who come with a 
following of five hundred knights to effect his rescue (A 520, 
51 ff.). But here too Pynabel is defeated in the ordeal and 
hanged. Gebewin, Nibelunc, and Gotfrit, mentioned in the 
Rolandslied merely as Karl's men, are presented in Karl der 
Grosse as his neven. He uses them as leaders and messengers 
(9145 ff., 9159 ff., 10977 ff.). A more prominent figure in the 
same epic is Gerhart, who has fostered his nephew and niece, 
Oliver and Alita. Himself childless, he has made these relatives 
his heirs (11131). The uncle's great concern for his nephew's 
safety is shown in 11031 ff., 11163 ff., 11237 ff., and his grief over 
Oliver's death is described in 11237 ff. In the Karlmeinet, too, 
Gerhart has fostered his sister's children, Oliver and Alda. The 
first question which he puts to the men returning from Spain 

so According to A 520, 71: ' sy war en synre suster Mnt.' Concerning 
Pynabel this relationship is confirmed by 520, 54. But Herffen is here 
first introduced as ' Pynabels oemen soen' 520, 58 — an exceptional, patri- 
lineal introduction even if we reconcile the two statements by the assump- 
tion that Herffen 's and Pynabel 's mothers were sisters and that ' oem' 
means here an uncle by marriage only. 



130 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



concerns the welfare of his nephew (497, 52). When the sad 
news of the latter 's death is imparted to him, emotional depth 
is added to the scene of grief by the simple statement: Olyuer 
was Gerartz suster soen (506, 59). 

Among the heathen, Mateus (Rol., 575 ff. ; Karl d. Gr., 1161 
ff.) and Algalifes appear as uncles (Rol., 1875 if.; Karl d. Gr., 
2647 ff., 23£9 ft.). The latter, who has a nephew in the heathen 
king Marsilie, is the king's counsellor, and is quick in his desire 
to avenge insult to his nephew. The latter, in turn, protects 
Algalifes from Karl. In the Karl der Grosse Marsilie also has 
a nephew whom he considers as a son, and to whom he intrusts 
the leadership of a large army (6301 ff.) . There are two paternal 
uncles, Carpin (5057 ff.) and Malprime's uncle (9967 ff.), each 
of whom loses his life in the attempt to avenge a brother's son, 
as does the paternal uncle Ganebeus in Karlmeinet (482, 8 If.). 

The last of the epics which retell the story of Karl and Roland 
is the Karlmeinet, which, as stated above, includes other material 
than that contained in the Chanson de Roland, the Rolandslied, 
or the Karl der Grosse; and here again uncles and nephews are 
very much in evidence. The heathen king, Bremunt, who has 
been defeated by Galaffers, King of Spain, is preparing a new 
campaign against him. His sister's son, Kayphas, is described 
as an unusually powerful man. The uncle places great reliance 
in his nephew 's strength, and the latter is completely subservient 
to the wishes of his uncle. Sending for Kayphas, the uncle 
recounts to him his previous defeat. The nephew swears that he 
will bring victory to his uncle, who knights him in return for 
the promised services (A 46 b, 51 ff.). Moving upon Galaffers 
at once with a large army, Bremunt camps on the shore of the 
river Tahge. Here he gives his nephew command of an army 
and sends him across the river to begin the attack. After a 
bloody battle Kayphas is forced to leave the field. His uncle 
praises him for his brave fighting, and asks him to rest. . Karl, 
riding secretly to the river during a fog the next morning, comes 
into contact with Kayphas, who had approached from the other 
side. In the ensuing combat Karl beheads his foe, and hanging 



1922] Bell: The Sister's San in the Medieval German Epic 



131 



his head to his saddle, makes his way back across the river. When 
the uncle discovers the death of his nephew, his grief is uncon- 
trollable : 

A 73, 5 Hey begonde weynen ind clagen, 

Sich ryssen ind hantslagen. 
O wach, we is mir gescheit, 
So mir nu erslagen leit 
Kayphas myn neue der vromste man, 
De van syner zyt ee leyff gewan ! 
******* 

Do warde erne van ruwen also leide, 
Dat hey neder vp de heyde 
Dry werff von erne seluer laeh, 
So hey en horde noeh en sach. 

Determined to avenge the death of his nephew, Bremunt encoun- 
ters Karl the following morning in battle. In the long combat 
he finally loses his sword Durendart ; facing death at Karl 's 
hand, he asserts that if killed he will be grimly avenged by his 
uncle Corsant: 

A 92 b, 50 Dat mach ich wael vur war geyn, 
Als van Taberne Corsant 
Myn ome der konynck hait erkant 
De mere, dat du mich hais erslagen, 
Dat wil ich dyr vur waer sagen, 
So sal hey in kurtzen zyden 
Mit kracht dir dureh ryden 
Vranckrich ind alle dyne lant. 
Dar sail geseheyn beyde roeff ind brant 
Sonder dynen wille 
Beyde offenbar ind stille, 
Want hey is der hogester konynck eyn, 
Den de sonne ee bescheyn. 
Ouch was hey mir so rechte holt, 
Dat hey noch durch seluer noch durch golt 
Mich neit en leyst vngewrochen. I ' 

This threat, however, is of no avail to 'save Bremunt 's life. 

To reward Karl for his services in killing Bremunt, Galaffer 
with his army accompanies Karl to France in order to help him 
recover his crown from usurpers. They pass on the way through 
the territory of Karl's loyal friend Gerffin. The latter is highly 



132 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



displeased at the trespass of this strange army, and wonders how 
he can learn its identity. His beloved nephew Godyn offers to 
confront the approaching army and challenge any knight among 
them to single combat, in the hope of securing the desired infor- 
mation from the defeated foe. Gerffin thanks his nephew for 
the good plan, but, unwilling to expose him to this danger, takes 
the task upon himself as the more hardened and experienced man 
(A 105 b, 34 ff.). However ardently the nephew covets the 
adventure for himself, he nevertheless acquiesces at once in his 
uncle's will. Gerffin is very proud of Godyn (A 111 b, 35), 
and they cover themselves with glory in the battle before Paris, 
fighting side by side. The uncle's authority to dispose of his 
nephew in marriage is illustrated in A 213, 54 ff. 

In this same battle Karl's brother-in-law, Herzog Balyn, is 
accompanied by a neve, Emelriche (A, 114 b, 33 ff.). Twice we 
are told how bravely the latter fights at Balyn 7 s side (A 116, 
A 117, Iff.). Morant, Karl's faithful standardbearer, also has 
two neven in fosterage, Fuckelmet and Elinant. "While absent 
on leave Morant is accused by Rohart of improper relations with 
Karl's AAdfe Galya. Karl is urged to entice Morant and his two 
neven to court in order to punish him (228 b, 54 ff.). A mes- 
senger is sent to Morant with the promise of the bestowal of great 
possessions upon the latter 's nephews. Morant is delighted at 
this recognition of his charges, but bad dreams deter him from 
accepting the summons to court. A second messenger specifically 
mentions two great fiefs intended for the nephews ; and now the 
apprehension of the uncle yields to his affection for his nephews 
and he goes to court with them. Accused by the King, Galya 
and Morant deny their guilt, and the latter demands an ordeal. 
Faced with the necessity of supplying hostages according to cus- 
tom, and having only his nephews with him, Morant asks them 
to do their duty by him as he would do his by them. They 
assent without delay and are confined in heavy chains (241 b, 
41 ff . ) . Seeking to avoid the dangerous ordeal, Morant 's accuser 
Rohart makes fresh accusations which goad Karl to order the 
immediate execution of Morant and Galya ; but the intervention 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epio 133 

of Baldewin and Roland, Karl's sisters' sons, prevents this sum- 
mary action. These two nephews, who have great influence over 
their uncle, win him back to a desire for due process of law, and 
the ordeal takes place. While the conflict rages, the two nephews, 
Elinant and Fuckelmet, fettered as they are, pray fervently for 
their uncle 's success ; and after Morant 's vindication Karl knights 
them, provides them with brides and gives them fiefs, amply 
apologizing to all Morant 's relatives. 

At this point Karl's sister's son Roland comes to the fore. In 
the battle for the holy sepulcher, we see Karl and Roland fighting 
side by side, the nephew counseling and cheering his uncle (331, 
21 ff.). Again, we find the uncle trying to restrain his nephew 
from the dangerous combat with the giant Ferracut and yielding 
only reluctantly to Roland's persistent urging (363 b, 63 ff. ; 
364, 17 ff.). The narrative then takes up the story of the 
Rolandslied, and only a few points in variation require mention. 
When Wellis (Genelun) departs upon his mission to Marselis, 
from which he has little hope of returning alive, he entrusts his 
oeme (uncle?) Wyneman, who would have liked only too well to 
accompany him and who sees him off, with the guardianship of 
his family and land (443, 59 ff.) ; and in so doing he charges him 
with the proper care of his sister's son — the same who later gives 
his life as champion for his uncle 's cause — before mention of his 
own offspring (A 444, 11 ff.). A Graf von Fundrall also appears 
in this version as Oliver's oeme. Upon seeing his nephew's 
corpse he is overcome with grief. Having planned to make Oliver 
his sole heir, Fundrall now decides to devote his wealth to relig- 
ious purposes for the sake of his nephew's soul (A 492, 29 ff.). 

Comparing the French original, the Chanson de Roland, with 
the three German epics, we find that there is some tendency in 
the latter to increase the number of relationships. Thus in the 
Chanson de Roland, Pinabel is mentioned only as Genelun 's 
friend and peer (cf. above) ; in the Rolandslied and Karl der 
Grosse he appears as neve, in Karlmeinet he is specified as suster 
soen (520, 54), and is also accompanied by a second sister's son 
Herffen (520, 71). Again, in the Chanson de Roland, Pinabel is 



134 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



opposed in the ordeal by Tierris, who is apparently of no relation 
to Roland; in the Rolandslied Tirrih is "sin nah&ste geborene 
mah" (8825) ; and in Karl der Grosse Dietrich calls Roland his 
neve (11820, 11971), and uses Roland's sword Durendart in 
avenging his death. And as we have seen, the Karlmeinet pre- 
sents an uncle (oeme = f) to Wellis (Genehln) in Wyneman 
(443, 59), and a similar relative to Oliver in the Graf von Fun- 
drall (A 492, 29) . It should be noted in all three of the German 
epics, as in the Chanson de Roland, that although Karl's son is 
in existence and is legal heir, he remains entirely in the back- 
ground. This son is offered by Karl to Roland's grief-stricken 
betrothed as a compensation for the loss of Roland. 

In the fragments of the epic Graf Rudolf (ca. 1170) which 
are preserved, Graf Rudolf and Bonifait appear as neven. In 
Rudolf's flight with Irmengart, which is very similar to that of 
Walther and Hildegrund in the Waltharilied, Bonifait dies in 
defense of the young couple. Though it is not impossible that 
we have to do here with uncle and nephew, it seems more probable 
that Rudolf and his neve are cousins. 

The Eneide by Heinrich von Veldeke {ca. 1185), the Liet von 
Troye by Herbort von Fritzlar (ca. 1215) and a later version of 
the same narrative, the Trojanischer Krieg, left unfinished by 
Konrad von Wiirzburg at his death in 1287, all deal with material 
from antiquity, borrowed through the French. In the Eneide 
Ulixes, in disguise as Sinon, represents himself as bent upon 
avenging the death of his uncle (990 ff\). Yljonix, Eneas' mes- 
senger to King Latin, is accompanied by a neve, and other neven 
are mentioned in lines 9012 ff., 10858 ff. In the Liet von Troye 
Xerxes is accompanied by his sister's son Menon (4061), and 
Cantipus meets death at Hector 7 s hands in the attempt to avenge 
the slaying of his sister's son Philatoas (8814 ff.). The author, 
Herbort, criticizes the praise which his source bestows upon King 
Pelias, since he was faithless to his nephew Jason (in this case a 
brother's son, 112 ff.). The uncle-nephew relationship is brought 
out still more prominently in the Trojanischer Krieg. When 



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Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 



135 



Lamedon's sister's son Eliachim is slain by Pollux, the uncle's 
grief is boundless, and he makes a solemn vow of vengeance : 

12124 in Troye wil ichniemer komen, 

e daz ich dich gerochen han. 
des wirt ein eit von mir getan 
den goten algemeine. 
din lip clar unde reine 
gebliiemet wol mit triuwen 
der muoz mich iemer riuwen, 
die wile ich uf der erden won. ' ' 
sus clagte kiinic Lamedon 
den jungen, siner swester barn. 

Promising great rewards to those who help him avenge his 
nephew, he says: 

12186 an minem sippenbluote 

spur ich so leiden aneblic, 

daz mich des grimmen todes stric 

hie kniipfet in sin netzegarn, 

ob miner lieben swester barn, 

der vor mir lit erstochen, 

niht hiute wirt gerochen. ' ' 

Ulixes derides and reproaches Achilles for having dressed in 
female garb, and points out that he has thereby shamed his 
mother's brother Jupiter (28444). In asking for the hand of 
Licomeden's daughter, Achilles identifies himself by naming his 
mother and his maternal uncle, making no reference to his father 
(28772). Ajax is repeatedly identified by reference to his mater- 
nal uncle (37128, 37186, 37396); similarly Euripilus (44691). 
And Ajax mourns the fate which separates him from his mother's 
brother (37397 ff.). 

In the 13th century it is no longer antiquity which has the 
center of the stage in the French and German court epics, but 
the legends of King Artus ( or Arthur), originating in Old 
Britain. We shall consider first the works of the three bright 
stars of the German court epic, and then the epics produced by 
their successors, the epigones. 

In Hartmann's Erec, the festival or beauty contest to which 
Erec takes Enite is given by the latter 's maternal uncle Imam 



136 University of California Publications in Modem Philology [Vol. 10 



(435 ff.). He is ready to do everything possible for them, and 
at once supplies his niece with suitable dress (633 ff.). He sig- 
nally honors Erec, partly because the latter is his niece's cham- 
pion and partly because he is victor in the contest. Before their 
departure to King Artus' court, he bestows rich gifts upon them 
(1406 ff.). 

Artus is represented as having a number of neven about him, 
but his favorite among them, Gawein, is the only one specifically 
defined as swestersun. Eager to see his neve (1794, 9944) Erec, 
Artus especially charges Gawein to fetch him: 

4872 Gawein, nu wis gemant , 

wiez under uns ist gewant, 
daz du min naehster friunt bist, 
und sume dich deheine frist 
mere durch die liebe min. 
hilf mir und der kiinegin 
daz wir Erecken gesehen: 
so mac mir liebers niht gesclielien. ' ' 

Gawein accomplishes the mission, even though he finds it neces- 
sary to resort to a ruse. Later Erec, after his victory over Mabo- 
nagrin, conducts numerous women, whose husbands his defeated 
foe had slain, to his uncle Artus, to adorn the latter 's court 
(9944 ff.). King Ivreins and Mabonagrin are also uncle and 
nephew. Mabonagrin, returning from abroad with a wife gained 
by elopement, brings her to the home of his uncle, who thereupon 
dubs him a knight (9482 ff.). The happiness of the family is 
disturbed by an oath which the young wife, fearing eventual 
desertion, exacts from her husband, to the effect that he remain 
alone with her in the garden at his uncle's castle until defeated. 
The husband, being of great strength, kills all knights who 
approach. This brings great sorrow to the land and explains 
why the unele, in speaking of the frightful prowess of the grim 
knight, is also under the shadow of the gloom cast by his nephew's 
oath, and why the uncle's concern is for Erec rather than for 
the nephew when the former enters the garden to give combat. 
The nephew himself is in the. end greatly pleased at his own 
defeat, for it brings welcome release. 



1922] Bell: The Sister's So?i in the Medieval German Epic 137 

In the Iwein, Kalogreant has been unhorsed and deprived of 
his mount by a powerful knight at the magic well under the 
linden. Iwein considers it his right and duty to avenge his neve 
(806), and is much exercised when Artus proposes to go to the 
well with his full strength, for he apprehends that the king will 
give the distinction of the combat to his sister's son Gawein 
(911 if*.). In order to forestall such a turn of events, Iwein 
secretly leaves at once and takes vengeance upon his nephew's 
despoiler. As the time approaches for Artus to start on his 
expedition, Kaii taunts Kalogreant because his uncle Iwein 
remains absent, despite his duty of avenging his kin (2456 ff.). 
Later in the narrative Iwein happens to stop at the castle of a 
knight who is suffering attack by the giant Harpin, to whom he 
has denied the hand of his daughter. Two of the knight's sons 
have already been killed by the giant, while the other four are 
prisoners and are threatened with death. The distressed father 
turns to the mother's brother of his children, Gawein, for their 
succor : 

4730 ez ist mir so umb in gewant 

daz er mir mliese gestan 
ze mime kumber den ich han: 
min wip ist sin swester. 

Unfortunately Gawein is absent on the attempt to rescue his 
uncle's abducted wife Genover; the knight consequently adjures 
Iwein, in the name of his comrade Gawein, to stay and help him. 
Iwein has promised to champion Lunete, Queen Laudine 's maid ; 
but though in honor bound to keep this engagement, he feels that 
he must stay, for it is the sister's sons of his beloved comrade who 
are in peril (4905 ff.). Gawein later bears this service in mind 
with constant gratitude (7610 ff. ; 7745 ff.). 

The world's greatest epic of love, Tristan und Isolt, appears 
in medieval German literature in two versions, the older being 
that of Eilhart (ca. 1170), the more renowned that of Gottfried 
(1210). The latter poet left his work incomplete, and conclu- 
sions were written by two succeeding poets. In all these poems 
the uncle and sister's son, King Marke and Tristan, are the 
central characters, and around them the entire plot turns. 



138 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 

In Eilhart's version the youth Tristan obtains permission of 
his father to go to the court of his mother's brother, where he 
presents himself incognito. He is usually identified in the epic 
as "Markes sw ester son" (631, 734, 5623). In Gottfried's ver- 
sion the boy 's father is dead, and he reaches his uncle 's castle by 
accident rather than by design. 91 In each version they feel their 
perfect compatibility from first sight. Marke chooses Tristan 
for his intimate companion, knights him, and is extremely happy 
when he learns that the youth is his sister's son, declaring that 
he shall be his heir (Gottfr. Prist. 4297 ff. ; Eilh. Prist. 1337 ft.). 
The devotion which the uncle feels finds repeated expression, as 
in his declaration that his happiness shall consist in passing all 
his days with his nephew, his desire to share all his worldly goods 
with him, and in his determination to forego marriage in order 
that his heritage may go to him. The reciprocal devotion of the 
nephew is well shown in his resolve to free his uncle from the 
long-endured humiliation of paying tribute to the King of Ire- 
land, by meeting the latter 's challenger Morolt in single combat. 
Marke is deeply worried over Tristan's resolve, and does his 
utmost to dissuade him. Failing in this, he accouters him with 
his own hands in his own prized armor, mounts him upon his 
own charger, and gives him a fine sword and shield (Eilh. Prist. 
750 ff. ; Gottfr. Prist. 6246 ff.). Although victorious, Tristan is 
wounded with a poisoned sword. Realizing that the alternative 
is between death and a cure at the hands of Morolt 's hostile niece 
Isolde, Tristan sets out in a boat for Ireland. This is an occasion 
of great grief for the uncle, who stands gazing with tear-dimmed 
eyes after the disappearing craft (Eilh. Prist. 1130 ff. ; Gottfr. 
Prist. 7374 ff.) ; but his joy is equally great upon the return of 
his nephew healed. 

Jealous relatives endeavor to thwart the king's desire to have 
a sole heir in Tristan, by urging, him to marry (Eilh. Prist. 
1337 ff.; Gottfr. Prist. 4297 ff.). He steadfastly resists, and 

9i The foster father, who has vainly searched for Tristan, gives thanks 
to God when he learns that he has landed in Kurneval: 
Gottfr. Prist. 837 ' ' So ist er rehte komen hin heim, 
wan Marke der ist sin oeheim. ' ' 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 139 

finally aims to make their purposes miscarry by choosing an 

impossible bride ; having found a woman 's hair, he swears that 

he will marry only the woman to whom it belongs. But when 

Marke's relatives hold Tristan responsible for this ruse and the 

latter feels that his life is menaced, Marke must permit him to 

take ship to find this Lady of the Lost Hair. Having secured 

Isolde for his uncle, Tristan breaks faith with the latter under 

the compulsion of a love potion. As leader among the relatives 

of the king who are jealous of Tristan we find another sister's 

son of Marke, Antret, 92 who spares no pains to estrange Marke 

from his favorite nephew, reporting the latter 's illicit relations 

with the king's wife and urging Tristan's death as punishment. 

When Marke is finally, through the evidence of his own eyes, 

convinced of Tristan 's guilt, he banishes him ; but after a while 

he forgives him and restores him to favor. Then follows a long 

series of similar deceptions, discoveries, banishments and for- 

givings, until the action is terminated by Tristan's death. 

A strong attachment exists between young Isolde (I) and her 

maternal uncle Morolt. It is to his niece that Morolt sends his 

messengers when he is wounded by Tristan; she hastens to meet 

her returning uncle, but finds him already dead (Eilh. Trist., 

944 ff.). Her grief at his burial is poignant, and though her 

father is living, she is declared to have lost in Morolt 

Eilh. Trist., 1025 den allir libestin man 

den sie ze der werlde i gewan. 

When Isolde identifies Tristan as her uncle's slayer, she seeks 
to avenge the latter with her own hands (Eilh. Trist., 1893 ff. ; 
Gottfr. Trist., 10142 ff.). With the cry "du giltest minen 
oeheim!" she is about to slay him, but is finally deterred, partly 
by her own gentle nature, partly by the restraining influence of 
her mother, who has pledged protection to Tristan, and again 
by concern over the suit of the hated Truchsess. Tristan has a 
claim to her hand as the promised reward for the killing of the 
dragon; but the father is greatly relieved at Tristan's sugges- 
tion that Isolde be given to his uncle Marke, for he knows that 

92 Antret is not mentioned in Gottfr. Trist. He appears, however, in 
Ulrich's continuation of the epic. 



140 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 

the remembrance of Morolt's death would have embittered his 
daughter's entire married life with Tristan (Eilh. Trist., 2246 ff.) . 

There are various uncles and sister's sons in minor roles: 
King Artus and Walwan (Gawan), whom he treats with great 
indulgence ; the besieged king Havelin, who receives most valiant 
assistance from "zwm sinen swestir sonen": 

Eilh. Trist., 6055 do rachin die helde gemeit 
ihres ohemes leit 
als ez giiten knechten wol gezam. 

and even Tristan is provided with a sister 's son, Tantrisel : 

Eilh. Trist., 8654 do was von sinem lande 

ein kint mit im dare komen, 

daz was siner swestir sone: 

daz was im lip, des hate he recht . 

The constant assistance which Tristan receives from this child, 
who in the later version of Heinrich von Freiberg (ca. 1300) is 
Marke's sister's son, is more consistently explained by the rela- 
tionship of sister's son to Tristan as given in the older version 
of Eilhart. The name Tantrisel itself suggests the close relation- 
ship to Tristan. A new relationship is injected into the plot by 
Heinrich, who, in his continuation, makes King Marke the uncle 
of Artiis (cf. 2497 ft. ; 2995 ff\). Here also, diverging from the 
earlier versions, the nephew Tristan chides himself for his dis- 
honor and sin in taking his uncle's wife (204 ff.), 

269 wan er bedachte starke, 

daz der kiinic Marke 
siner muoter bruoder was, 

and at times actually succeeds in stamping out his love for Isolde. 

Despite the oft-repeated deception and deep wrong which he 
has suffered, grief has possession of Marke's breast at the death 
of his nephew. On learning that Tristan and Isolde had been 
under the spell of a love potion, 

VI. Trist. 584, 12 so vaste er want die hende, 

daz si muosen kraehen. 
vil weinens, ane lachen 
was under sime gesinde. 
nach siner swester kinde 
hat er vil groze ungehabe. 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 141 

It is the uncle's most poignant regret that he did not know of 
the potion before, and that it is too late to make the lovers happy 
(Eilh. Trist, 9478 ff . ; Heinr. Trist., 6726ff.). Commentators 
have stated that Tristan's relationship to his uncle makes his 
deeds appear all the blacker. But there is another aspect to the 
plot. The older versions show no moral struggle in the nephew. 
He does not abduct the queen, nor is he a vile seducer. His 
breach of faith towards his uncle is not a voluntary one, but is 
represented as wholly due to the irresistible power of the love 
potion. On the other hand, the uncle's love is such that he is 
endlessly able to forgive. The narrative may be fairly said to 
place the emphasis on the closeness of the uncle-nephew tie rather 
than upon its failure. 

Careful study of medieval Germany's most renowned court 
epic, the Parzival, reveals looming more or less clearly in the 
background, as the original theme of the entire plot, the duty to 
one 's kin, in particular to the mother and the mother 's brother, 
and the penalty which comes from violation of that duty. 93 
Although the relationship is not greatly stressed in the Parzival, 
it is important to note that Anfortas, the keeper of the grail, 
hopes for the help of his sister's son, Parzival, to heal him from 
his deadly wound by the asking of the necessary question, and 
it is probable that the nephew's struggle to reach and help this 
uncle, whom, however, in the Parzival he does not know, is the 
original essence of the story. Parzival's first meeting with 
Anfortas is a failure. The nephew is covered with his aunt's 
mantle and is given a sword by his uncle, but he fails to put the 
necessary question (V, 129 ff., 468 ff.). In the midst of his 
wanderings and efforts to reach the grail Parzival learns from 
another maternal uncle, Trevrizent, that in Ither he has slain a 
cousin, and that his mother Herzeloyd, whom he has deserted, 
has died of a broken heart over his departure. As though this 
breach of kinship ties forever barred him, Trevrizent believes 
that his nephew can never reach his uncle Anfortas ; and out of 
pity for him and to save him useless trouble prevaricates to him 

93 Cf. Nitze, op. cit., passim. 



142 University of California Publications in Modem Philology [Vol. 10 



about the grail (XVI, 335 ft.). After much wandering, how- 
ever, Parzival again reaches Munsalvaesche, where his words: 
"Oeheim, was wirret dir?" at once deliver Anfortas from his 
long suffering (XVI, 269 ff.). 

The main guidance which Parzival receives comes from his 
maternal uncle Trevrizent, to whom he appeals as a sister's son 
to learn the truth (IX, 1309 ff.). Although this ascetic uncle is 
able to offer only roots and herbs to eat, these are an abundance 
to the nephew, coming from his uncle's hands, 

IX, 1604 durch die getriuwe minne 

die'r gein sinem wirte truoc. 

Later, when Parzival has become Lord of the Grail, he again 
meets Trevrizent, and expresses his desire to have the guidance 
of his counsel until death shall part them : 

XVI, 366 "dinen rat wil ieh haben doch, 

die wile uns scheidet niht der tot: 
du riet ' mir e in grozer not. ' ' 

Feirefiz, having fallen in love with Parzival's maternal aunt, 
Kipanse, is advised by the latter 's brother Anfortas to turn to 
her sister 's son for help : 

XVI, 749 "iwer bruoder (Parzival) ist ir swester sun: 

der mag iu da wol helf e tuon. ' ' 

Artus and his favorite sister's son Gawan are likewise promi- 
nent in the Parzival. Gawan points out the close bond between 
his uncle and himself in VI, 705 ff., and the nephew is occasion- 
ally identified through his uncle (cf. VIII, 546: " Artuses swester 
sun"). When Keie is wounded by Parzival, he tries to stir 
Gawan to revenge by arguing that in his being disabled it is 
Artus who has suffered loss : 

VI, 555 "ir sit mins herren swester sun: 

* * * * * * * 

iwer oeheim, der kiinec her, 
gewinnet niemer solhen Keien mer. ' ' 

Gawan is accused of faithlessness and challenged to mortal com- 
bat by a strange knight who proves to be Kingrimursel. At this 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 143 



Artus is very unhappy and deeply resents the reflection cast 
upon his nephew. He declares that if Gawan were dead and 
unable to clear his honor, he himself would take up the battle 
and not permit this tarnish to rest on his nephew 's reputation ; 
but he feels confident that his nephew will clear himself with his 
usual prowess (VI, 1273 ff.). Artus' devotion to Gawan is 
brought out particularly on the occasion of the nephew's combat 
with King Gramoflanz. When Artus receives the letter asking 
him to be present, he says : 

XIII, 670 . ... 11 wol disem suezem tage, 

bi des liehte ich han vernomen, 
mir sint diu waren maere komen 
umb ' minen werden swestersun. 
kan ich manlich dienest tuon, 
durch sippe und durch geselleschaft, 
ob triuwe an mir gewan ie kraft, 
so leiste ich das mir Gawan 
hat enboten, obe ich kan. ' ' 

Gawan 's opponent, Gramoflanz, is likewise a sister's son, and his 
uncle, Brandelidelin, comes in pomp to grace the occasion of his 
nephew's combat (XIV, 98 ff.). Since Gawan is temporarily 
incapacitated, Parzival takes his place against Gramoflanz ; but 
when it becomes apparent to Brandelidelin that his sister's son 
is being defeated, he interferes, stops the combat, and insists that 
Gawan shall later meet his opponent in person. Artus is very 
sensitive as to his nephew's honor, but nevertheless uses every 
resource to stop the conflict which is pending, for the sake not only 
of his nephew but also of his niece, Gawan 's sister Itonje, who, 
it transpires, is in love with Gramoflanz. Becoming convinced 
that this love is strong enough to stop the conflict, Artus suc- 
ceeds in arranging that Gramoflanz shall visit his niece before 
the duel takes place, offering to him as a special escort of honor 
his sister's son Beakurs. Gramoflanz comes with his uncle. The 
two uncles meet, drink together, and confer over the situation ; 
Artus points out to Brandelidelin that if the latter 's " sw ester 
sun" Gramoflanz should kill his (Artus') " siv ester sun" Gawan, 
Gramoflanz would have to forego the love of Artus' niece. 



144 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



Brandelidelin is now as anxious to adjust matters as is Artus, 
and through the joint effort of the two maternal uncles concord 
and harmony are soon reestablished. 

Kaylet has two sisters' sons in Gaschier and Killirjacac. In 
a conflict this latter nephew is taken prisoner. The captors 
rejoice at their rare good fortune in thus having the uncle com- 
pletely at their mercy: 

I, 920 wir haben Kaschiere 

gevangen einen graven abe: 
der biutet uns vil groze habe. 
der is Kayletes swester sun: 
swaz uns der nu mac getuon, 
daz muoz ie dirre gelten. 
solch gliicke kumet uns selten. 

This nephew is associated with his uncle in another episode 
related in II, 828 ff. 

Other sisters' sons and maternal uncles of lesser importance 
are mentioned in the epic. There is the Baruch, whom Gah- 
muret goes to help and who is identified through his mother's 
brother (II, 1295) ; Ither, too, is evidently Utepandragun 's sis- 
ter's son, and was fostered by his uncle (III, 877 ff.) ; Vergulaht 
has two maternal uncles in Gahmuret and GaLoes (VIII, 670 ff.) ; 
and Condwiramurs ' son Kardeiz is named after his mother's 
brother (XVI, 410). 

Closely related to the Parzivdl is the Titurel, of which only 
fragments remain. These fragments were picked up by a later 
writer and embodied in a new production, the Jung ere Titurel, 
in which the uncle-nephew motif is again signally prominent. 

Schionatulander comes upon a camp of knights, and, not 
knowing that this is Artus and his followers, sends his challenge 
into the camp and awaits opponents. The son of Artus' sister 
Sangive 94 wishes to undertake the combat with the strange knight, 
but Artus restrains him forcibly because of his youth (1353 ff.). 
Had the brothers Arilus and Lehelin been equally careful of 

94 That Sangive's children are with their uncle is shown again, 2123, 
2124. 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epie 145 

their sister 's son Arbidol they would have been spared much bit- 
terness. They were closely identified with him in joy and sorrow : 

1315 den beiden gie zu hertzen do der klare. 

Sin freude kunde ir freude hohe setzen, 
Sin leit ir herzten sere, 

Sin trouren kunde sie beide an freuden letzen. 

Arbidol undertakes the combat and meets death at Schiona- 
tulander's hands (1319 ff.). Orilus plans grim retribution 
(1359 ff.) ; but he, too, is defeated. Thereupon Schionatulander 's 
maternal uncle Ekunat, of whose presence at the knighting of 
his nephew we have read before (1098, 1125, 2), decides to take 
up the challenge. As he bears down upon the strange knight 
the latter, to every one's surprise, wheels to one side, refusing 
combat; for he has recognized his uncle's shield (1382). He 
removes his helmet, and as Ekunat recognizes his sister's son, 
each horseman joyfully springs from the saddle to embrace the 
other. The uncle asks for an explanation of his masquerading 
alone in strange armor. The nephew is glad to tell his whole 
tale to the uncle, whose help he desires to have (1386 ff.) ; the 
uncle replies that his sister 's son is dearer to him than any other 
living person, and that death alone can interfere with the aid he 
is ready to give him : 

1387 Du bis miner swester kint, 

Des mac ich niht ver gezzen. 
Alle die heute lebentic sint, 
Die kunnent dich von mir niht gemezzen. 
Ich trage mit dir was dir wirret, 
Daz hilf ich dir nu wenden, 
Nieman dann der tot mich des irret. 

Schionatulander then tells his uncle about his love for Sigune 
and her insistence upon his recovering the dog with the leash; 
the uncle declares that he would willingly renounce the weight of 
the Caucasus in gold rather than see his nephew's love thwarted 
(1389 ff.) , and the nephew responds with equal warmth (1401 ff.) . 
Ruefully discovering now for the first time that it is Artus and 
his knights whom he has been defying, Schionatulander begs his 



146 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



uncle to gain for him Artus' pardon and favor (1411 ff.) . Acced- 
ing to Ekunat's representations, Artus holds a council to plan 
reconciliation with the relatives of those whom Schionatulander 
has slain (1415 IT.). But despite all Artus' urging Orilus proves 
intractable. In vain Ekunat explains that each of the youths 
had but sought adventure without intention of a fatality ; Orilus' 
heart cannot be softened. Not shrinking even from an unparal- 
leled affront to King Artus, he and his wife unceremoniously ride 
from camp without leave-taking rather than have anything to 
do with the slayer of his sister's son. He takes with him the 
dog with the precious leash, into possession of which he has come, 
declaring that he has won it by the sword. 

Knowing that this leash with its mysterious inscription is 
essential to his nephew in securing Sigune's love, the uncle, 
Ekunat, rides after Orilus. A date is set for the battle between 
them; but when Ekunat's wife reads the inscription aloud, it 
moves every one to tears and accomplishes what no words had 
been able to achieve — it softens Orilus' heart, so that a peace is 
effected. 

Unfortunately this peace does not endure. Schionatulander 
and Ekunat go to help the Baruch against the Babylonians and 
to avenge the death of Gahmuret, sister's son to Ekunat and 
cousin to Schionatulander. The latter compels those whom he 
has defeated to accompany them, and thus Orilus and Lehelin, 
with their remaining sister's son Erolas, are led to participate 
in the fighting. Gahmuret is duly avenged, and the Baruch is 
victorious ; but the Christians suffer great losses, among these 
Erolas (4172 ff.). The grief of their double loss gnaws deeper 
and deeper into the uncles' hearts, until the impulse to avenge 
becomes irresistible (4428, 4). In vain the Baruch offers Lehelin 
mountains of gold to forget his hatred (4330). With the ques- 
tion of the ownership of the leash as a pretext, Orilus and Lehe- 
lin demand combat. All attempts to adjust the matter fail 
(4435 ff.). News comes that the two, assisted by their mother's 
brother (4481, 3), are approaching Kamofleis in force, burning 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epie 147 

and devastating the land. Schionatulander meets them in com- 
bat and defeats both ; but finally Orilus gets his revenge by 
killing Schionatulander in a joust (5031 ff.). 

The epic assumes as a matter of course that this deed will 
cost Orilus his life (5114 ff.). Ekunat is depicted as devoid of 
all joy, and implacably bent upon a single-handed revenge. In 
the end he slays Orilus, and when his wounds are healed goes to 
his sister's son, Kailet of Spain. 

In Baruch Ackrin's army Essemfrelle is assisted by his 
brother's sons (3129), and Grloraxidus by his sister's son (3146). 
The Baruch has the help of his mother 's brother (3169) and of 
his sister's sons, Ardibileis and Ardolise, who are intrusted with 
important posts of leadership (3182-3183). The uncle's charge 
to these nephews is recorded in 3183-3190. And his appeal to 
Sargidun, Algusier, Parssap, and others to protect his sister's 
sons in the coming battle, at all times riding faithfully at their 
side, shows his deep concern for their safety (3191-3194). How 
bravely these nephews fight in the battle, mutually assisting and 
being assisted by their uncle, is told in 4033-4039. 

Sigune is identified as "des grates herren sw ester kini" 
(5206, 3). We catch glimpses of a deep devotion between her 
and her mother's brother Anfortas. It is he who finally leads 
Sigune home from the linden tree where she has mourned her 
lover so long (5376). And Sigune, talking to Parzival, declares 
that she would creep on all fours all the way to the grail if she 
could thereby give aid to her sick uncle (5445, 3). Passing 
reference is made to another uncle and his sister's son, King 
Marke and Tristan, who participate in the jousts at one of Artus' 
tournaments. The uncle is greatly concerned for the safety of 
his young nephew, and when Marholt unhorses the uncle, Tristan 
makes every attempt to avenge the deed (2111 ff.). 

By the same author as the Parzival and the Titurel, and like- 
wise based upon a French source, is the Willehalm, much of the 
dramatic interest of which centers around the maternal uncle 
and his sister's sons. Among those who accompany Willehalm 



148 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 

in battle is "des marcrdven swester hint, Myle" (14, 21), who is 
killed and deeply mourned (21, 24 ff.). But the sister's son 
who is particularly glorified, much as Roland in the Rolandslied, 
which the Willehalm consciously imitates, is "des marcgrdven 
swestersuon" Vivianz (22, 31 ; 41, 13 ; 47, 28 ; etc.) . He has been 
fostered by his uncle and aunt from earliest childhood and has 
received knighthood at his uncle 's hands ; on this occasion Wille- 
halm also knighted a hundred other youths in his honor, giving 
each two fine mounts, while Queen Gyburc furnished each with 
three suits of costly cloth (24, 13 ff. ; 62, 23 ff. ; 63, 7 ff.) . 

Vivianz is introduced fighting hotly for his uncle against the 
heathen in the battle of Alischanz. His great bravery is indi- 
cated by the fact that although he is so wounded that his bowels 
hang down over his saddle, he does not flee, but, catching up his 
entrails in his banner, fights on (25, 20 ff.). In the course of 
the battle Vivianz is finally felled to the ground by Halzebier, 
who is bent upon avenging the killing of his neve Pinel and his 
sister's son Libilun (45, 30; 46, 18). Trampled by the horses 
as the battle ebbs and flows over him, Vivianz is at last able to 
crawl upon a wounded horse and ride along the stream Larkant 
until he reaches a large linden tree, in the shade of which he 
lies down to die. Touchingly he prays to God, as his last request, 
that it may be granted him to see his uncle Willehalm before 
he dies (49, 15 ff.). An angel promises him that this wish shall 
be fulfilled, and while Vivianz lies unconscious his uncle, riding 
to the brook, recognizes the shield of his nephew under the linden. 
The ensuing scene is replete with tenderness and vibrates with 
emotion (60-69). The uncle is so overpowered by his sorrow 
that he falls in a swoon from his horse and lies for a time uncon- 
scious by the side of his dying nephew. Recovering, he undoes 
the latter 's battered helmet, takes the blood-stained head gently 
in his lap, and sobs out his grief in a long monologue. When 
Vivianz, just before his death, awakens to brief consciousness, 
the uncle administers a bit of wafer to him as the last sacrament. 
At imminent peril to his own life, he tries repeatedly to carry 
his nephew's body with him from the field, and gives up the 



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Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 



149 



attempt only when compelled to fight against overwhelming num- 
bers. When he captures Arofel, the brother of his foe Terramer, 
in the subsequent fighting, he summarily rejects fabulous offers 
of ransom and has the prisoner put to death, for " er ddchte an 
Vivmnzes tot" (79, 25). 

Willehalm 's brothers, Bertram, Gybert, and Arnald, are also 
deeply interested in their sister 's son Vivianz. When Bertram 
sees his nephew make a charge upon the enemy in the battle, he 
fights madly to rescue him from his imminent danger (42, Iff.); 
when he himself loses his horse during this fighting, Vivianz in 
turn brings him a new mount (42, 16 ff.). The grief of the 
brothers over the loss of their nephew and their efforts to avenge 
his death are described 120, 14 ff. ; 123, 5 ff. ; 124, 39 ff. ; 171, 
9 ff . ; 380, 10 ff. There are many uncles and sisters' sons in the 
army of the heathen, and the nephews are invariably associated 
with and identified after their uncles. Thus Synagun, three 
times identified as " Halzebieres swester sun" (27, 14; 220, 16; 
294, 23), fights valiantly beside his uncle and brings honor to 
the heathen army; Fausabren, " Terramers swester suon," is 
avenged by his uncles (371, 7 ff.) ; Tybald inherits the land 
Sybilje from his uncle Marsilje (221, 11 ff.) ; Poydjus is repeat- 
edly identified as Rennwart's "swester sun" (289, 10; 444, 27) ; 
and Terramer, speaking to Josweiz, seems to lay stress upon the 
avuncular bond in his roundabout method of stating their rela- 
tionship : " du hist miner kinde oeheimes sun" (349, 11), the 
oheim being in this case, as usual, the mother's brother. 

A remarkably close bond between uncle and niece appears 
in the episode where Willehalm, angered beyond control by his 
sister, attempts to take her life. She escapes into her chamber 
and urges her daughter to go to her oheim and accomplish recon- 
ciliation. The effect of the niece's plea upon her uncle is mag- 
ical; his eyes brim over and he is ready to grant anything she 
may ask (156, Iff.). 

So prominent have the sister's sons Vivianz and Mile been in 
the epic that even the conclusion, which tells of Willehalm 's com- 
plete victory, is framed in terms of the lost nephews : 



150 University of California Publications in Modem Philology [Vol. 10 



450, 1 Jesus mit der hoehsten hant 

die claren Gyburc und daz lant 

im (Willeh.) des tages im sturme gap: 

er brant den pris unz in sin grap, 

daz er nimmer mer wart sigelos, 

sit er uf Alitschanz verlos 

Vivianzen siner swester kint, 

und der mer die noch vor gote sint 

die endelosen wile. 

siner swester sun Mile 

wart wol gerochen an dem tage. 

There is but little of further interest in the extension to the 
Willehalm written by a later author, Ulrich von dem Tiirlin. 
Willehalm here has five neven, Vivianz, Gauters, Joseranz, Mil, 
and Gwigrimanz, the latter four of whom, upon the marriage of 
their uncle with Arabel, honor him by each marrying a princess 
from Arabel's following. And to enhance the occasion still more, 
Willehalm 's sister's son Mil gives his sister's daughter Duzet in 
marriage to the emeral, who has been of great assistance to Wille- 
halm and Arabel in their elopement (CCXCIV, 4 ff.j. The 
fosterage of Vivianz is referred to in CCCVI, 2 ff., and his knight- 
ing by his uncle in CCCXXVIII, 12 ff. 

In Ulrich von Zatzikhofen's Lanzelet, King Artus appears 
with three sister's sons, Walwein, Karjet, and Lanzelet. The 
renown of an unknown knight (Lanzelet) having reached the 
ears of King Artus, the latter is very anxious to see him at court. 
He chooses his sister's son Walwein for the mission of fetching 
him. Walwein introduces himself as "des Mineges Artus swester 
ham" (2494 f.), and Lanzelet agrees to accept the invitation. 
But many adventures intervene. Finally, hearing that a combat 
is pending between Artus and Yallerin, Lanzelet hastens to assist 
the former. That Artus and Lanzelet are uncle and sister's son 
is repeatedly stated (cf. 4949 ff. ; 4958 ff. ; 5573; 8461; 8801). 
The fact that Lanzelet is not recognized by Artus is accounted 
for by the fact that the former was stolen in infancy. When 
he makes his relationship known to his uncle he is most affec- 
tionately received (5224 ff.), and his offer to represent his uncle 
in the defense of Queen Ginovere against Yallerin is accepted. 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 151 

Lanzelet appears in the role of adviser to his uncle (7026 ff.), 
and on another occasion when the nephew needs assistance, the 
uncle furnishes him with an army of three thousand knights and 
with ample supplies (8060 ff.). 

Other epics, which, like the Lanzelet, belong to the Arthurian 
cycle and contain the uncle and nephew motif, are: Wigalois, 
Daniel von dem bluhenden Tal, Garel, Die Krone der Abenteuer, 
Meleranz, Seifrid de Ardemont, Tandareis und Floridibel, and 
Wigamur. Though these epics are under the influence of French 
sources or patterns, they show much original German invention. 
We shall consider them in order. 

In the Wigalois we find a case of an uncle providing a hus- 
band for his niece by capture. The knight of the belt who early 
in the plot defeats Artus' nephew Gawein proves to be king of 
a distant land. He takes Gawein home with him and gives him 
as husband to his swester tohter Florie (29, 17 ff.). After a 
half-year of married life Gawein longs to see his kin and journeys 
to Karidol. There, even after his long absence, he finds his uncle 
Artus standing before the castle door, mourning for his lost 
nephew (33, 32). Later in the story Wigalois, offspring of the 
marriage referred to, is rendered unconscious in a battle with a 
dragon. Struggling to recall his identity as his consciousness 
returns, he thinks first of his mother, then of his oheim (here = 
mother's uncle) Joram, and only last of his father (150, 30 ff.). 
Another nephew, Bejolarz, is identified as sister 's son to Moral 
(223, 12 ff.), and has the assistance of his uncle in combat (258, 
8 ff,). 

In Daniel von dem bluhenden Tal Artus is surrounded as 
usual with various neven, Gawein, Iwein, and Parzival, of whom 
only Gawein is identified as sister's son. As elsewhere, Gawein 
stands high in the counsel of his uncle, and is always the first to 
speak and advise (885 ff . ; 6220 ff. ; 6251 ff.). In the warfare 
against King Matur the nephew also plays a prominent role. 
With Iwein and Parzival he constitutes the advance guard of 
the army ( 2853 ff . ) , and in the thick of the fight we find him at 
his uncle's side (3259 ff.). 



152 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



It is significant that Garel, in the epic of that name, identifies 
himself through a famous ancestor, his uncles, and his mage, but 
not through his father (4176 ft.). In this epic again, Artus is 
attended by a group of neven: Garel, Gawan, Lanzilet, I wan, 
Erec, and Beakurs ; but in no case is the degree of their relation- 
ship specified. Although some of them are according to tradition 
sisters' sons, we are not warranted in assuming that in the Garel 
all of them bear this relation. 95 The pursuit of Artus' wife, 
Ginover, who has been abducted by Meljacanz, is carried on by 
these neven, chief among them Gawan. Artus is filled with anx- 
iety for their safety, and prays God to protect them (216 ff.). 
The relationship which is most strongly emphasized, however, in 
the Garel is that between Gilan and his sister's sons Alexander 
and Floris. Gilan, with whom Garel has formed a friendship, 
recounts to the latter the capture of his sister's sons by Eskila- 
bon, who holds them captive- in his castle at Belamunt (2483 if.). 
He is on his way to free them (2552 ff.; 2620 ff.). The mother 
of the captives is confident of a happy ending when her brother 
arrives (2810 ff.) . After the defeat of Eskilabon there is a joyful 
reunion (4575 ff.) . 

In passing, it may also be noted that the dwarf Albewin, 
whom Garel liberates, and who presents the latter with a magic 
sword and ring, had received these precious possessions from his 
oeheim (6560 ff.) . 

95 Chrestien mentions Garel among Gawein 's brothers. The editor, 
Walz, in his synopses (Ch. VII, p. 134; Ch. IX, p. 268) unhesitatingly calls 
Artus and Garel uncle and nephew, and Golther (Die deutsche Dichtung im 
Mittelalter, Stuttgart, 1912, 262) ascribes to them the same relationship. 
Now Artus frequently addresses Garel as neve (18567, 18853, 19284, 19963) ; 
he had reared him from his twelfth year on (4199 ff.), had knighted him 
and had presented him with an island (4213 ff.). But although the rela- 
tionship appears externally to be that of uncle and nephew, it should be 
noted that the tone between the two remains formal, Garel never address- 
ing Artus as oheim but always as Herr;' and that in identifying himself 
through his relatives Garel names two oeheim (Gahmuret and Galwes), 
but refers to Artus, in contrast, only as his mag (4176 ff.). It would 
appear, therefore, that although Artus and Garel are relatives, their kin- 
ship is less close than that between uncle and sister's son. There are 
other instances of Walz's too ready use of the equation neve = nephew. 
Thus he calls Klaris Garel 's nephew, although it is clearly shown that he 
is the sister's son of Garel 's wife's mother, and thus a cousin of Garel 's 
wife; similarly he calls Ammilot Ekunaver's nephew, whereas the two are 
only cousins (cf. 13701, 14141, 14591, 16896). 



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153 



There are numerous references to uncles and nephews in the 
rambling and loosely woven plot of the Krone der Abenteuer. 
Foremost among these is Gawein, who introduces himself as 
" Artus swester suon" (21606). Various incidents evidence the 
closeness of the bond between uncle and nephew. Having wit- 
nessed Ginover 's humiliation by Gasozein, the nephew confidently 
promises to restore her to his uncle's favor (11825 ££.). When 
the maid Sgoidamur appeals to Artus for a champion, she declares 
that she wants none other than his sister's son (12879 ff.). Dame 
Fortune, wishing to bestow the greatest measure of favor and 
happiness upon Gawein, promises him that she will endow his 
uncle Artus with permanent riches and power (15895 ff.). 
Gawein 's continued absence from court on adventures causes his 
uncle great concern ; and when it is believed that he is dead, the 
grief of Artus and his court is profound (16860 ft. ; 21824 ff.). 
Having heard of this through his mother's aunt, the nephew 
sends a messenger, both to announce his safety to his uncle and 
to appeal to him for help in a pending battle with Giremelanz. 
His wish is promptly fulfilled by Artus, who shows exuberant joy 
at the news of his nephew 's safety : 

21940 Die rede der bot niht vol gesprach: 

Der kiinec die abe brach, 
Von dem stuol er von vrouden spranc, 
Disen knappen gar sunder danc 
Kuste er me wan drizec stunt, 
Und tet im groze vroude kunt. 

Gawein has obligated himself to undertake the dangerous quest 
of the grail, which is held to mean certain death. Artus declares 
to his followers : 

25759 Ir herren, swaz mir ie geschach 

Leides, daz was ein niht 
Wider dise schedilich geschicht, 
Diu mir nu ist geschehen, 
Als ir alle habet gesehen. 
****** 

25784 Swie ez Gawein ergeht, 

Also muoz ez mir ergen; 
Ich wil die reise besten 



154 University of California Publications in Modem Philology [Vol. 10 



Mit Gawein: des ist niht rat. 
Unser ietweder den andern lat 
In deheiner not beliben, 
Die er mac vertriben, 
Und da im helfebaere 
Der ander waere 
Oder iemer sin mohte; 
Ob ez im also tohte, 
Daz waere gar unwendic. 
Git Geliicke uns beiden sic, 
Deswar, daz ist sunder nit; 
Swelhme einem ez in git, 
Des hat der ander kleinen haz; 
Waz tohte zwein gesellen baz? 
Swelher aber in der not 
Bestat, so ist der ander tot, 
Swie verre er waere von im. 
Dar umbe ich mir die reise nim. 
Ich enwil nimmer ane in 
Vrouden pflegen, obe ich bin. 
Sit er dar sol, ich muoz da hin. 

It is only with the greatest difficulty that the united opposition 
of Artus' knights and of Gawein himself restrains Artus from 
accompanying his nephew; and there is boundless rejoicing on 
the part of the uncle and his court when Gawein returns safe 
and successful (29766 ff.). 

Another maternal uncle, Gansguoter, appears in the role of 
provider and guardian for his sister's daughters (13038 ff.). 
Among those who come to a tournament at the castle of Sorgarda 
is Laamez von Babilon, accompanied by his sister's son Ascha- 
lone (18051 ff.). They fight side by side in the tournament 
(18343 ff.), and the nephew, deeply pained at his uncle's defeat, 
tries, though in vain, to avenge him (18457 ff.). 

Pleier's poem, Meleranz, presents us with a good case of uncle 
and sister 's son. The youthful Meleranz has heard of his famous 
uncle Artus since earliest childhood (181 ff.). Feeling irresist- 
ibly drawn to him, he leaves home secretly, and, arriving at 
Artus' court incognito, finds a place in his uncle's following. 
The bereaved mother, in her distress over the disappearance of 
her son, turns to her distant brother Artus for help, whereupon 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 155 

Artus suspects that his strange young guest may be the missing 
nephew. Having identified him as such, he greets him most 
affectionately and tells him that all he has is at his disposal 
(2370 ff.). He has no thought of allowing his nephew to return 
to his mother with the messenger whom she had sent. It is 
significant that in his opinion their relationship accords to his 
sister's son the rights which we would expect his own son to 
have, and that the father receives so little consideration : 

2468 nu bin ich inne worden rehte 

daz er ist miner swester sun. 
wil ich der sippe nu rehte tuon, 
so sol er gewaltic sin 
iiber al in dem lande min, 
reht als gewaltecliche 
als da heim in Franken riche. 
nu sage ouch miner swester daz 
si siil ez lazen ane haz, 
ich welle in hie bi mir behalten. 
er sol gewalteclichen walten 
al. des ich in mini lande han. " 

Artus also insists that the nephew receive knighthood from his 
hands (2690 ff.) ; he arranges a great festival for the occasion, 
to which he invites his nephew 's parents, and in Meleranz ' honor 
uncle and father dub a hundred knights each to knighthood. 
Artus 7 concern for his nephew's safety is indicated 3219 ff. and 
10899 ff., and his delight at the latter 's achievement in gaining 
Queen Tydomie's hand 10502 ff. Some time before the wedding, 
Tydomie 's maternal uncle, not knowing of her betrothal, attempts 
to dispose of her hand to his wife's brother. He goes so far in 
asserting his authority as to employ his army against his niece's 
land, claiming inheritance of the land from his sister (7715 ff . ; 
10950 ff . ; 11646 ff.). But he really desires only his niece's wel- 
fare, and when he learns that she is betrothed to the sister's son 
of Artus, he becomes reconciled. He sees in her his child, and 
she in him her father : 

12710 ze siner nifteln gienc er sa, 

mit armen er si umbevie. 
er sprach "niftel, ob dir ie 



156 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



von mir dehein leit geschach 
oder daz du hetest fur ungemach, 
daz soltu, frowe, mir vergeben. . 
die wil wir beide miigen leben, 
wil ich dichs ergetzen so 
daz du des wirst von herzen fro. 
ich han niht kindes me dan din. 
allez daz da heizet min, 
daz sol dir wesen undertan, 
dir und Meleranz dinem man. ' ' 
diu kiingin sprach ' 1 oeheim min, 
ich han vil gern die hulde din, 
wan ich niht mere trostes han 
wan dich und minenlieben man 
den mir got hat gegeben. 
an iu beiden stet min leben. 
herzenlieber oeheim min, 
du muost min trost min vater sin. ' ' 
" daz tuon ich gerne sicherlich. ; 7 
also sprach der kiinic rich. 

In Seyfrid de Ardemont the hero secretly leaves home in order 
to join his maternal uncle Gaban at the court of King Artus. 
During the various adventures which he encounters on the way, 
his uncle is the ideal of bravery which he holds up to himself for 
emulation (30, 1 ff\). Arriving before Karidol, Seyfrid pitches 
his tent and defeats successively fourteen knights of the round 
table. As the fifteenth, Gaban, rides out to do battle, Seyfrid 
learns that he is the uncle of whom he is so proud, turns aside 
from the shock of the lances, makes himself known, and is joy- 
fully welcomed by his uncle (61, 1 ff.). Soon after, Seyfrid is 
knighted by Artus, his maternal uncle's maternal uncle, whom 
he addresses as dhaim, and of whom he now begs permission to 
go and champion the oppressed maid Condiflor. Although appre- 
hensive, the relatives are nevertheless at last constrained to grant 
the request ; Gaban arms his nephew with his own hands (91, 1 f¥.) 
and is later notified of the latter 's victory by a special messenger 
(192,5). 

As in the preceding epics, so again in Tandareis und Flordibel 
Artus is surrounded by his neven Gawan and Lanzilet, Eric and 
Iwan, Beacurs and Melianz. The hero Tandareis is the son of 



1922] Bell: The Sister's San in the Medieval German Epic 157 

Queen Genover's olicim (670 ff.). When Tandareis is banished 
by Artus for his elopement with Flordibel, he turns first of all 
to his mother's brother Yergulaht (4092 ff.). The runaway 
couple, seeking reconciliation with Artus, choose his favorite 
nephew Gawan as intermediary, who, confident of his influence, 
promises his assistance (3106 ff.), and with respectful boldness 
expresses to his uncle his disapproval of the latter 's attitude 
(8227 ff.). After obtaining the king's forgiveness, Tandareis 
asks him to honor the two girls who have competed for his hand 
against Flordibel and have lost. Artus complies in the case of 
Antoni by giving his swester sun Beacurs to her in marriage. 
The latter is not consulted as to his own desires, but yields sub- 
missively to this disposal of his affections (16408 ff.) . Three suc- 
cessive times Antoni expresses her sense of the great honor thus 
shown her (16585 ff. ; 17232 ff. ; 17377 ff.). Finally, attention 
may be called to the loving relation between Dulcemar and Gen- 
over, who are oeheim and niftel (17286 ff.). 

The Willehalm von Orlens presents a sister's son in Yilippe, 
who is identified through his maternal uncle Willehalm (156 ff.). 
There is trouble between Willehalm and Joffrit. Although King 
Yilippe, nephew to the former and cousin to the latter, holds 
himself aloof from the quarrel while it lasts, he is deeply grieved 
when his uncle is slain in battle (1762 ff.). It is with difficulty 
that Joffrit exculpates himself with King Yilippe, by an oath 
that he is personally innocent of Willehalm 's death (2373 ff.). 
The plot also mentions Coradis, who, gathering his relatives to 
wage battle against King Witekin, receives the assistance of his 
sister's son Gillamur (10830 ff.). King Amelot and Willehalm 
II, battling against King Alan of Ireland, capture the latter 's 
sister's son. This is represented as the crowning feature of the 
enemy's discomfiture (12128 ff.). 

The heroine of the Demantin, Beamunt, is identified through 
her maternal uncle, whose heir she is (317 ff.). Upon the death 
of Beamunt 's father, a suitor, Firganant, tries to gain possession 
of her hand by violence. Her relatives thereupon arrange a 
tournament, at which she is to be awarded to the knight who 



158 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 

successfully defends her. Her uncle, the King of England, jour- 
neys to Erramon to attend the tournament, and expresses his 
joy that she is to be defended by Demantin, upon whom he confi- 
dently relies for the defeat of Firganant (396 ff.). There being 
no other quarters available for the newly arrived Demantin, the 
king gives up his own rooms to accommodate his niece's cham- 
pion. After Firganant 's defeat by Demantin, the uncle, accord- 
ing to promise, awards his niece to the victor. But Demantin 
in turn gives Beamunt to Firganant. and after the wedding the 
uncle and his wife renounce their crowns in favor of their niece 
and her husband (1540 ff.). Various other uncles and nephews 
receive mention in the plot. We are told, in a matter-of-course 
way, that Onyphant is determined to avenge the defeat of For- 
tasin because he is the latter 's uncle (1714 ff.). "When Demantin 
slays King Eghart's cupbearer, the latter 's nephew is the first 
to take up the pursuit for revenge (4075 ff.) . And Watser, twice 
identified through his uncle (9839 ff. : 10898 ff..), is prominent in 
the relief party which goes to the latter 's assistance. Much of 
the action of the epic Mai unci Bcaflor centers in the nephew 
Mai and his maternal uncle, the King of Spain. Mai's mother, 
Eliacha, opposing her son's marriage to the foundling Beanor. 
declares that she will report the matter to her brother, Mai's 
uncle (68, 27 ff.). Mai's followers, too. recognize the authority 
of the uncle, who. as they say, expects great things of his nephew 
(73, 42 ff.). Mai carries out his marriage plans despite all 
adverse counsel. The attitude of the uncle toward the union is 
not brought out. Shortly after, a messenger arrives bringing 
rich gifts from the uncle (98, 4 ff.) and a message appealing to 
the nephew's triive for the aid which the latter owes him in the 
war with the heathen, who are about to fall upon his land : 

99,26 "er weiz wol, daz ir sit getriu: 

des mant hi eh miii her re 
iwer genaden verre 
und wes ir im schnldic sit. 
daz ir im komt an den strit, 
daz ir iuwer trrwe gehiiget 
und hornet im so ir beste miiget." 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 159 

Mai replies with a prompt assent and likewise sends costly pres- 
ents (104, 5 ff.). When the messenger returns, the uncle sends 
to Mai a costly tent, fine Spanish horses, and supplies, to insure 
his comfort on his way to Spain (109, 23 ff.)- The meeting of 
uncle and nephew is a most affectionate one (110, 8 ff.). When 
the heathen army approaches so near that it is necessary to send 
out pickets, Mai beseeches his uncle for the honor of that duty 
(112, 23 ff.). The uncle is reluctant on account of the danger 
involved, but finally gives his consent. He furnishes the nephew 
with a guard of five hundred knights, whom he charges to serve 
and protect Mai better than if he himself were present (112, 
39 ff.). Mai and his troops win in the first contest with the 
enemy, and the uncle is proud of his nephew's prowess (117, 
9 ff.). In the ensuing battle the king intrusts Mai with the 
leadership of the first of his five army divisions (119, 14 ff.), 
and to Mai falls the credit for complete victory over the heathen. 
The king does his utmost to induce his nephew to remain with 
him permanently, offering him the regency over a vast territory ; 
but Mai, while assuring his uncle that he is ready to serve him 
unto death, declines all rewards (125, 26 ff.). The king detains 
him as long as possible (126, 19 ff.), and when at last he must 
accede to parting, he is unable to restrain his tears ; he would 
give half his possessions to keep Mai with him (127, 2 ff.). 127, 
21 indicates the nephew's expectation of inheriting the uncle's 
wealth and possessions. 

In the Engelhart, as in Herzog Ernst and Tristan und Isolt, 
we find a jealous nephew. Two youths, Dietrich and Engel- 
hart — in particular the latter — arouse the jealousy of King 
Fruote 's sister 's son Bitschier, when they find favor in the king 's 
sight (1664 ff.). The king plans an elaborate celebration for 
the knighting of his sister's son, at the same time giving the 
sword to thirty youths in his nephew 's honor, among them Engel- 
hart (2434 ff.). The jealous nephew soon finds a weapon with 
which to attack his rival in the king's affections. Engelhart has 
won the love of the king's daughter Engeltrut, and shortly after 
the tournament the nephew by chance discovers the two in loving 



160 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



embrace (3276 ff.). Losing no time in bearing this tale to his 
uncle, Ritschier pushes unannounced into the latter 's bedcham- 
ber. The king is deeply shaken at the news, but when Engelhart 
denies the accusation and demands trial by ordeal, the king, for 
the sake of his daughter's honor, permits the combat. To avoid 
defeat due to his guilt, Engelhart is represented in the ordeal by 
his innocent and faithful double, Dietrich, who defeats Ritschier, 
cutting off his hand, and is about to kill him, when the uncle 
interferes to save his nephew's life (4954 ff.). The nephew is 
completely disgraced, but the daughter of the king is vindicated 
and is given in marriage to Engelhart. 

The opening of the narrative in Partonopier and Meliur finds 
the youthful hero living with his maternal uncle, King Clogiers, 
who has fostered his nephew from earliest childhood (256 ff.). 
The uncle prizes this nephew above all riches (309 ff.), "das er 
allez golt filr in ndht enket genomen." On a hunt one day with 
his uncle, the thirteen-year-old Partonopier kills a ferocious wild 
boar, to the intense delight of his uncle and his followers, who 
rejoice in his prowess (388 ff.). The dogs, warmed to the chase 
and excited by this prey, pass out of control, and Partonopier 
rides after them to bring them back. His horse becoming ex- 
hausted, however, he is overtaken by the fall of night, and 
remains lost in the forest. The anxious uncle conducts a search 
until darkness forces him to desist. Coming to the sea in the 
night, the lost nephew crawls aboard a boat, and is frightened 
the following morning to find himself adrift. Anticipating death, 
the youth grieves, 

744 wan ich besc-houwe niemer me 

den oelieim und die muoter min. 

Although the father is alive (cf. 2848 ff.), it is of his uncle and 
his mother that the youth thinks; later passages confirm us in 
the belief that this is by no means accidental. The boat having 
drifted to a strange land, Partonopier spends a year with the 
enchanted Queen Meliur as her lover, but is then overcome by 
a longing to visit his homeland to see his uncle and his mother : 



1922] 



Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 



161 



2722 uf sines werclen vater lant 

wart sin herze do verdaht 
und uf so vesten willen braht, 
daz er niht lazen wolte, 
swaz im dar umbe solte 
und siner frouwen hie geschehen, 
sin ouge wolte dort besehen 
den kiinic, sinen oeheim. 

2738 swie manicvalt hie waere, 

sin liebe, froude und sin gemach, 
doch jamert in, daz er niht saeh 
den oehein und die muoter sin. 

2796 min lant, min guot, min ere, 

den oehein und die muoter min 
saehe ich gerne, mohte ez sin. 

Except in the rather impersonal phrase sines werden vater lant 
Partonopier 's father is nowhere alluded to nntil Melinr, grant- 
ing her lover permission to visit his home, informs him that both 
his uncle and his father have died (2846 ff.). His mourning at 
this sad news is described in 2972 ff., 3026 ff. It appears as 
though the death of the uncle were forgotten in the long sequel, 
for the mode of address appropriate between the old king and 
Partonopier, 'neve' and ' oheim/ is retained in the intercourse 
between the young king and the hero, though they are but cousins. 
The use of oheim might be considered as merely compliment- 
ary; besides, both terms may mean simply 'relative,' especially 
in address. But the fact that the cousins bear as sentimental 
a relation to each other as did the real uncle and his sister's son, 
and the further fact that so late in the poem as line 16700, long 
after the death of the uncle, Partonopier is identified as the 
king's 96 sister's son, make it appear probable that we have to do 
with an oversight on the part of the poet. 

A brother's son (3726 ff.) and numerous sister's sons of 
minor importance occur in the poem. The Saracen king, Sorna- 
guir, who attacks the young king, Partonopier 's cousin, with an 
army, is accompanied by his sister's son Fursin. When a recon- 

96 This may, indeed, refer to either the old or the new king, but appears 
to refer to the latter. 



162 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



ciliation between the foes takes place, Sornagiur cements the 
peace by leaving this sister's son with Partonopier to be edu- 
cated (6505 ff.). Although Fursin's father is living (9899), the 
youth is identified through his maternal uncle only (Sornagiur es 
swester hint, 9902), and the control of his education and career 
is entirely in the hands of this uncle. 

At Meliur's tournament, the King of Siri is accompanied by 
a sister 's son, whose unhorsing by Partonopier the uncle promptly 
endeavors to avenge (15848 ff.). Similarly, in 19043 ff., an 
uncle engages in hot combat with Alise for the purpose of 
avenging the slaying of his sister's son (20546 ff.). 

"We have in the Wigamur an interesting case where equal 
rights of succession to their nephew 's crown and land is ascribed 
to uncles on both sides of the family, assuming that oheim as used 
in 3521, 3666, and vetter in 3526, 3666 have their predominant 
meanings of maternal and paternal uncle respectively. Amilos, 
King of Deleferant, dies without direct heirs. The right of suc- 
cession and inheritance is claimed by both the maternal uncle 
(oheim) Atroclas, King of Herat, and the paternal uncle (vetter) 
King Paltriot (3519, 3664). The author pronounces the two 
uncles to have equal rights (3502), and puts a similar sentiment 
into the mouth of the hero, Wigamur, who wanders upon the 
scene at this juncture. Nevertheless, "Wigamur decides to cham- 
pion the cause of Atroclas, the maternal uncle, against his own 
(to him unknown) father, and is about to engage in single com- 
bat with the latter. But Paltriot, being a king and unwilling to 
fight with a man of unknown station, requires to know "Wiga- 
mur 's identity, and thus finds in him the son stolen from him in 
infancy. The father, making himself known as such, at once 
points out the boy's maternal uncle Agrasyn, who is with him 
(4152 ff.). A complete reconciliation takes place between Pal- 
triot and his opponent Atroclas by the giving of the latter r s 
daughter to Wigamur. It is not the father but the maternal 
uncle who hastens ahead of the army and leads the long-lost son 
home to his mother, sending a courier in advance of their arrival 
to announce the happy tidings (4237 ff.). In another passage 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 163 



in this epic, King Marroch, who is trying to obtain the hand of 
Queen Ysope by force and who has already done her great harm, 
also invades the land of her natural protector, her uncle (2766). 

In the Apollonius von Tyrland the hero discovers in his 
opponent Absolon the son of his oheim Julian, after whom he 
calls him "Du Julianes kindt," and with whom he then pledges 
comradeship. Apollonius fights to avenge his niece Pallas, whose 
voice spurs him on to victory (19490 ff.). King Candor gives 
his niece in marriage (12920). When Apollonius arrives at 
Ninive, where his maternal uncle is Sultan, the latter gives him 
a warm welcome, ministers in every possible way to his comfort 
(10326 ff.), and thanks God for his nephew's safe arrival, 

10338 "Wan er was siner swester sun." 

In the Atliis und Prophilias an uncle serves as bodyguard to 
his niece Gaytin (A, 435, 1, 118 ff.). 

In Flore and Blanscheflur the hero Flore is sent to his mater- 
nal aunt Sybille (1404 ff.), and inherits lands from his uncle 
340 ff.). 

In Friedrich von Schwab en, the hero, forced to part with 
his beloved Angelburg because he has violated her injunction by 
striking a light to see her in the night, refers to the grief of 
Willehalm and Karl at the loss of their nephews, in order to 
indicate the poignancy of his own grief at the loss of Angelburg 
(1505, 1513). 

In the Gate Fran the King of Spain is aided by his nephew 
in his war with the Graf von Poitouwe. When the nephew is 
defeated and captured, the king has to pay heavy ransom (918 f.). 

In Heinrich und Kunigunde, Bishop Brun lays false claim 
to the Bishopric of Babenberg in order to bestow it on his sister's 
son (2555 ff.). Queen Kunigunde fosters her niece, a sister's 
daughter, from earliest infancy (3575). 

In the Lohengrin, a neve succeeds Kaiser Otto to the crown 
(7521 ff.), and there is a passing reference (7547) to another 
uncle and his sister's son. 



164 University of California Publications in Modem Philology [Vol. 10 



In Ludwigs des Frommen Kreuzfahrt, King Baldwin deeply 
loves his sister's son Wilhalm, whom he makes king of Tripoli 
(381 ff.). 

In the Treue Hausfrau, the knight who leaves his wife to 
engage in combat and is disfigured by the loss of an eye, is accom- 
panied by a sister's son (132, 95 f.), who bears the message 
between the knight and his wife that leads to their reunion. 

There is an uncle with his sister's sons in the Valentin und 
Namelos, but the relationship is not emphasized. 

Finally, in the Wilhelm von Osterreich, Gaylet mourns the 
loss of his uncle Gahmuret (14097 ff.). 



III. HISTORICAL EVIDENCE, AND THE VIEWPOINT 
OF PHILOLOGY 

In Germanic history as well as in the literature survivals of 
early matriliny are to be found. Tacitus records a quarrel over 
succession between an uncle, the Quadic chief Vannius, and his 
sister's sons Vangio and Sido. 97 In another chapter we have 
referred to the testimony of Tacitus as to the high position of 
the Teuton woman. The description which he gives of the daily 
life of the Teutons is likewise interesting. He tells us 98 that 
during the intervals of war they passed some of their time in 
hunting, but most of it in repose divided between sleeping and 
eating. The warriors committed the care of the house, the family 
affairs, and the lands to the women, old men, and weaker mem- 
bers of the household, while they themselves lived in dull indo- 
lence. These conditions are strongly suggestive of those which 
prevailed among the American Indians in conjunction with 
matriliny in a highly developed form; the striking parallel is 
noted and repeatedly commented upon in the Oxford translation 
of Tacitus. 99 Speaking of the Teutons in battle, Tacitus tells 



97 Annal., Liber XII, C. XXX. 

98 Germ., C. 15. Cf. Caesar, B. G h 4, 1; 6, 21. 

99 Notes, pp. 287, 305, 342. 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 165 

us that their military formations {turma aut cuneus) were made 
up of families and clans. 100 There is evidence that the first per- 
manent or semi-permanent settlements of the Germanen were 
made by family groups (the fara), the members of which were 
conscious of their common descent. 101 The historian Lamprecht 
holds that these kin groups were originally matrilineal units 
which survived as Hundertschaften because of their tactical sig- 
nificance in the army. 102 

By far the most direct historical evidence which we possess 
is the famous statement of Tacitus (Germ., XX) that the uncle- 
nephew tie among the Teutons was equally close, if not closer, 
than the tie between father and son: " Sororum filiis idem apud 
avunculum qui apud pat rem honor. Quidam sanctiorem arctio- 
remque liunc nexum sanguinis arbitrantur et in accipiendis obsi- 
dibus magis exigunt, tamquam ii et ammrmm firmius et domum 
latius teneant. Heredes tamen successor esque sui cuique liberi; 
et nullum test amentum. Si liberi non sunt, proximus gradus in 
possessione fratres, patrui, avunculi." 103 It will be noted that 
inheritance was no longer through the female line, but was from 
father to son or to the nearest paternal relatives. Already in 
Tacitus' time, then, the relationship of the maternal uncle to 
his nephew remained only a matter of sentiment in the minds 
and customs of the people. As Gummere says : 104 " When one set 
of laws .... must give place to another set, the former passes 
into communal sentiment," lingering finally as an apparently 
unintelligible, abnormal, or incongruous custom. 

100 Germ., C. 7. 

101 R. Schroder: Lehrbuch der d. Eechtsgesch.^ Leipzig, 1898, 16. 

102 Op. cit., I, 103, 128; cf. Schroder: op. cit., 16-18; Brunner, Deutsche 
Bechtsgesch., I, 84 if. 

103 1 ' Children are regarded with equal affection by their maternal 
uncles as by their fathers; some even consider this as a more sacred bond 
of consanguinity and prefer it in the requisition of hostages, as if it held 
the mind by a firmer tie, and the family by a more extensive obligation. 
A person's own children, however, are his heirs and successors; and no 
wills are made. If there be no children, the next in order of inheritance 
are brothers, paternal and maternal uncles." Oxford Translation, London, 
1901, II, 311. For comment, cf. Miillenhoff: Deutsche Altertumshunde, IV, 
Berlin, 1900, 321. 

104 Op. cit., 135. 



166 University of California Publications in Modem Philology [Vol.10 



Despite the emphasis which has always been laid upon the 
purity of the marriage relation with the Teutons there are. as 
Weinhold 105 and Dargun 106 show, ample traces of an early pro- 
miscuity which is typical of primitive peoples: and this often 
has a connection with the tracing of descent in the female line. 

From the beginning of the historical period early Germanic 
law recognizes relationship with and through the father as well 
as the mother. In general the agnatic relatives enjoy the advan- 
tage over the cognatic. Nevertheless there remain, as a legacy 
from prehistoric days, plain traces of the opposite system. 107 Of 
peculiar interest is the Lex Salica. the earliest legal document 
of the salic Franks. Characterized not only by its antiquity, 
but also by its comparative freedom from Roman influence, the 
Lex Salica shows a recognition of the female line which amounts, 
in certain respects, to a preference. Thus the famous passage 
"de chreneeruda ' ' ' Tit.. LVIII) specifies that a murderer who 
is not able to pay the necessary wergeld shall call upon his rela- 
tives by means of the symbolic rite of casting a handful of earth 
upon them — first upon the nearest and then upon the more remote 
relatives — and names after the parents and brothers the relatives 
on the mother's side, making no reference to the paternal kin: 
"Quod si jam pater aid mater sen f rater pro ipso solve runt, super 
sororem tunc matris aid super ejus fili-os debet ill am terram jac- 
tare.' nos Later versions, toward the end of the 6th century, 
include a mention of the paternal relatives, but only after the 
maternal kin. 109 Similarly, the oldest versions of Tit. 59 provide 
that the movable property yfalirende Habe) of a deceased person 
without children shall pass to his mother or eventually to her 
(preferably female) relatives. There is much dispute concern- 
ing these passages, 110 but competent authorities are of the opinion 

los Die d. Frauen. II. 12 ff. ioe MutterrecM. 13 ff. 

107 Amira: Grundriss d. germ. Bechts, Strassburg. 1913. 169. 

ios Grimm: Ba. s I. 111. 

io9 Heinr. Geffcken: Lex Sal.. Leipzig, 1898, 58. Cf. Amira: Erbenfolge 
und Verwandtschaftsgliederung nach den altniederd. Bechten, Mime-hen, 
1874, 61. 

no Brunner: Op. cit.. I. 79 ff. : Delbriic-k: Muterreeht bei den Idg., Preus- 
sische Jalirbiicher. lxxix. 1.895. 22 ff. 



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Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 



1(37 



that they can only be matrilineal survivals, residual matrilineal 
rights in the midst of an opposed system. 111 Amira points out 
the prominence of the mother's brother in early Low German 
law, saying: "Die geschichtliche Bedeutsamh if dii s< r Tatsachi n 
wird erhort durch die bekannten An gab en des Tacitus iiber den 
* sanctior arctiorque nexus' zwischen dem Mutterbruder und den 
Schwesterkindern." 112 And he even finds historical evidence of 
inheritance from the uncle by the nephew in the transmission of 
certain offices.'' 113 Contact with the highly patriarchal civili- 
zation of the Romans accelerated the obsolescence of matrilineal 
conditions with the Teutons. The farther north we go the longer 
these conditions lingered. Chadwick asserts: ''There seems to 
be no evidence for believing that a purely agnatic system ever 
prevailed in the North, while the further we go back in native 
tradition the more prominent become the traces of the opposite 
system. ' 7114 

The oldest of the Danish historians, Saxo Grammaticus, indi- 
cates cases of succession through the sister 's son among the early 
Danish kings; 115 and "when we get back of the 8th century in 
Scandinavia," says Chadwick, "we constantly find the kingdom 
passing to daughters' sons and even to daughters' husbands/' 116 
It seems by no means improbable that Beowulf's expected suc- 
cession to the throne of his maternal uncle Hygelac rests upon 
an historical basis. 

It is impossible to recapitulate here, even most briefly, the 
evidence which many writers have offered of earlier matriliny 
among the various peoples of the Indo-European race. His- 
torians, sociologists, archaelogists, and jurists of repute accept 
the view that there was a stage of matriliny in the development 
of the Indo-Europeans. Leading philologists, however, stand out 

m Perhaps the most detailed treatment is that of Dargim: Mutter- 
recht % 60 ff. See also Lampreeht: Festgabe fur Georg Hanss&n, :um 31. Mai, 
1889' Tubingen, 1880; Heusler: Institute II, 522; Chadwick: Oria. of the 
Eng. N., 327 ff. 

112 Amira: Erbenfolge, 210. 

us Ibid., 8. us Tr. by Etton, Y1I, 260, 336. 

H4 Op. cit., 334. us Op. cit., 332. 



168 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 

in persistent refusal to accept such a theory ; for these Delbriick 117 
and Schrader 118 are the chief spokesman. Their argument is 
that whereas there are primitive Indo-European kinship terms 
expressing the relation between the wife and the husband's fam- 
ily, there are none for the relationship between a young man 
and the members of his wife 's family ; and that this fact indicates 
that the wife left her relatives and disappeared in the house of 
her husband, the Sippe of the wife being perhaps friendly, but 
not related, and the family organization being strictly of the 
patriarchal type. As increasingly settled conditions brought 
about a closer union of the maternal and paternal kinship groups, 
the maternal uncle gained a more favorable position than the 
paternal uncle because he stood as a friendly protector outside 
the relation of authority of the father and his house. Dargun, 119 
by strong argument, fairly maintains the matrilineal viewpoint 
against the philologists. It is important to bear in mind that 
the linguistic evidence is purely negative, being based upon the 
absence of certain common terms for relationship in the Indo- 
European languages. Furthermore, philologists themselves cau- 
tion us as to the finality of their own evidence. Thus Hirt, 
although he agrees in the main with Delbriick, 120 says: "Im all- 
gemeinen gehen die Verwandtschaftsnamen auf das Verhdltnis 
der Fran zu den Anghdrigen des Mamies und der Kinder zn den 
V erivandten des Yaters, aber die Annahme ist falsch, dass das Ver- 
hdltnis des Mannes zu den Angehbrigen der Fran, das der Kinder 
zu den mutterlichen Verwandten nicht bezeichnet worden ware. 
Erstlich hob en wir tatsdchlich Worter, die dies Verh'dltnis be- 
zeichnen, und zweitens konnen wir aus dem Schweigen der 
Sprache nichts schliessen. Die Sprachen, die bis zum heutigen 
Tage die idg. Verwandtscliaftsnamen, und die V biker, die auch 
die alten Formen der Familien z. T. auf das beste bewahrt liaben, 
die Litauer und die Slaven, kennen auch eine wohl ausgebildete 

117 Mutterrecht bei den Idg., 17 ff.; also Die Idg. Verwandtschaftsnamen. 
us Reallexicon, s. v. Familie, 213 ff. Cf. also his Sprachvergleichung und 
Vrgeschichte, 2. Aufl., Jena, 1890, 533 ff.; and Hirt: Die Idg., II, 409. 
us Familienrecht, 86 ff. 
120 Die Idg., 704 ff. 



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169 



Benennung der Angehbrigen der Fran in ihrem Verhaltnis zu 
dem Schiviegersohn." 121 He concludes: "Was wir aits diesen 
Tatsacken entnehmen kbnnen ist sehr wenig und im wesentlichen 
nur negativ. Es weist in ihnen nichts auf sine Mutterfolge hin. 
Eine Vaterfolge wird durch diese Ausdrucke nicht erwiesen." 122 
In other words, the most that can be said against the matrilineal 
theory even from the philological viewpoint is that the question 
is still an open one. 

But the matrilineal survivals among the Teutons need not 
of necessity find explanation in an Indo-European origin. There 
is an alternate possibility : that the matrilineal tendencies of the 
early Teutons were contracted in their contact with the non- 
Indo-European inhabitants of Europe. The foremost upholder 
of this view is Bernhoft. 123 That there is indubitable evidence 
of such matrilineal peoples in Europe even the philologists seem 
ready to concede. Let us quote them briefly, as the most con- 
servative group. Shrader remarks: (( Es sind aber Spuren vor- 
handen, die es als wahrscheinlich erscheinen lassen, dass die vorin- 
dogermanische Bevolkerung Europas oder Teile derselben unter 
Miitterrecht standen. . . . An der Richtigkeit dieser Ausf iihrun- 
gen kann nach den ~beigebrachten Zeugnissen ein Zweifel nicht 
best eh en. m24 Hirt likewise declares the evidence to be beyond 
doubt. 125 

The primitive, non-Indo-European population bordering on 
the Mediterranean, in Asia Minor, Africa, and Southern Europe 
were matrilineal. There is clear evidence of matrilineal condi- 
tions among the Locrians and the Etruscans. 126 In the extreme 
west were the Iberians, to whom Strabo (3, p. 165) attributes 
matrilineal practices; among the Basks, according to Hirt, 
"herrscht noch heute die Vererbung durch die alt est e Tochter, 

121 Cf. Hoffmann: Op. cit., passim. 

122 Die Idg., 706. 

123 Zur Gesch. des europ. Familienrechts, Z. f. vergl. E., VIII, 233. 

124 Eeallex., s. v. Mutterrecht, 564 ff. 

125 Die Idg., II, 410. 

i26Bachofen: Mutterrecht, Basel, 1897, 309 ff.; McLennan: Studies in 
Anc. Hist., London, 1896; see ch., " Kinship in Anc. Greece.' 7 Hartland: 
Prim. Society, London, 1921, 124. 



170 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 

die ihren Geschwistern Unterhaltungsg elder gel) en muss. . . . 
Man wird wohl anfuhren durfen, dass auf den Balearen die Frau 
in hoher Wertschatzung stand." 127 In the British Isles the pre- 
Indo-European population was likewise matrilineally organized. 
The evidence, first established by H. Zimmer, 128 is accepted as 
conclusive by Hirt, 129 Schrader, 130 and Delbriick. 131 Hirt says: 
"Bet den Besten der vorarischen Urbevolkerung Britanniens 
bestand das Mutt err echt (besser die Mutt erf dig e) in voller Gel- 
tung; es regelte die Erbfolge noch Jahrhunderte, als die Pikten 
langst christianisiert und sprachlich keltisiert waren. Die 
Frauen nahmen nicht etwa eine besonders hohe Stellung ein, im 
Gegenteil; nirgends herrscht eine Frau. 132 Die Mutter, also die 
Geburt, bestimmt aber die Stammzugehdrigkeit , das Erbrecht. 
Auf einen Piktenherrscher und seine Brilder foigt nicht etwa der 
Sohn des altesten, sondern der Sohn der Schwester; auf diesen 
und seine eventuellen Brilder von Mutterseits folgt wieder ein 
Schwester sohn, u. s. iv." In Scotland, Chadwick tells us, 133 pater- 
nal succession was not introduced into the royal family until the 
9th century, and in Ireland, too, there are distinct historical 
traces of matrilineal succession. 

It is clear, then, that we have, over against the theory of 
Indo-European matriliny, the alternative of influence by aborig- 
inal matrilineal peoples. But these alternatives are, of course, 
not mutually exclusive ; outside influences may have strengthened 
existing matrilineal conditions or survivals among the Indo- 
Europeans. 

127 j)ie Idg., II, 419. 

12s < Zeitschr. der Savigny-Stiftung fur Beclitsgescli., XV, Bom. AM., 209. 

129 Die Idg., II, 419. 

130 Beallex., s. v. Mutterrecht, 565. 

131 Mutterr. bei den Idg., 19; cf. Chadwick: Op. ext., 341 ft; Feist: Idg. % 
116 ft 

132 The Britons admitted the sovereignty of women; in the 1st century 
Cartismandua was queen of the Brigantes and Boadicea was queen of the 
Iceni. The latter not only combined royal and priestly functions but also 
led the army of her people against the Romans (Holmes: Ancient Britain, 
268, 297). 

133 Op. cit., 331. 



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Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 



171 



CONCLUSION 

The tendencies which we have observed in the medieval Ger- 
man epic seem explicable only in terms of the matrilineal theory. 
The strength of the evidence from the epics lies not only in its 
own consistency but also in its perfect coherence with the great 
mass of evidence available from other sources. The chief evidence 
which the epics present is of course the prominence of the avun- 
culate. But the evidence afforded by the close association of the 
uncle and the sister's son is corroborated by what we find with 
respect to the other family relationships in the epic. It is main- 
tained by some 134 that the closeness of the uncle-nephew tie is 
not always of necessity a survival of matriliny, but is explicable 
on other natural grounds, such as the protection of the wife and 
children against the arbitrary will of the husband (father), or 
representation of the interests of the children against the inter- 
ests of the family of the father. Furthermore, when the father 
is dead, the mother would naturally, even in a patrilineal society, 
turn to her own brother for advice and help rather than to a 
brother-in-law. And even with the father living, it would be 
natural that she should turn to the maternal uncle when he is 
more powerful and distinguished (Artus) and can do more for 
the children than the father. 

Now when we pass in review the cases of the avunculate 
found in the epics, we observe that instances of protection against 
the arbitrary will of the husband do not occur, and the same may 
be said of the defense of the children's interests against those of 
the paternal kin. In many cases the father is known to be dead, 
but while the mother's preference for her own brother is natural 
from the patrilineal viewpoint, the same cannot be said of her 
children as between the paternal and maternal uncle except upon 
the basis of the call of the blood. Looked at from the standpoint 

isiCf. Delbriick: Mutterr. ~bei den Idg., 17 ff. ; Schrader: Beallex., s. v. 
Familie, 213 ff.; Weber: Ehefrau und Mutter, Tubingen, 1907, 26. 



172 University of California Publications in Modem Philology [Vol. 10 

of the uncles, it is the father's brother who should be closer to 
his nephews in a strictly patrilineal society and who should be 
so viewed by them. Any emphasis of the tie between brother 
and sister and the latter 's children on the one hand as against 
the tie between husband, wife, and children and the husband's 
kin on the other, is a matrilineal tendency at work in conflict 
with the patrilineal system. 135 Leaving out all cases in the epics 
where there are special reasons for the prominence of the mater- 
nal uncle, there remain frequent cases where the father is living 
and apparently on normal, affectionate terms with wife and chil- 
dren, and yet remains in the background, while the maternal 
uncle has charge or takes charge of the nephew and seems upper- 
most in the nephew 's regard and affection ; and the striking fact 
is that the epics present this relation as a matter of course, if 
they do not expressly refer to the maternal uncle's right and 
duty toward his nephew, and the rights and duties of the latter 
toward the former; in other words, the relation appears institu- 
tional, fixed by custom and tradition. 

It is difficult to determine the extent of reciprocal influence 
between the Germans and the French. The possible influence of 
the imitation of French models is limited, however, to the age 
of chivalry ; moreover, it is a question whether the influence was 
not originally the other way. It is now established that the 
French Chansons de Geste are of Germanic origin, and in his 
study of the avunculate in the Chansons Farnsworth concludes 136 
that "the tradition of nephew-right must have come into the 
French from Germanic sources." In any case, the prominence 
of the avuncular relationship in the earliest, uninfluenced monu- 
ments of Germanic literature indicates that we have to do here 
with something which was indigenously Germanic, though paral- 
leled in other countries 137 and, in German chivalric poetry, 
strengthened, but not essentially modified, by French concur- 
rence. 

Within German literature the influence of literary convention 
and tradition is large. It is the tendency of the later epics to 

135 Cf. Dargun: Familienrecht, 84. 

ise Op. cit., 224. 137 Cf. Dargun: MutterrecM, 76. 



1922] Bell: The Sister's S071 in the Medieval German Epic 173 

imitate earlier models and to emphasize conventional relation- 
ships. But the uncle-nephew motif extends from such early 
beginnings of Germanic legend through such varied periods of 
dissociated literary production that the factor of imitation is 
inadequate as an explanation. It can only be accounted for, 
especially in the light of external historical evidence, by primi- 
tive social conditions. 138 This factor of imitation or literary 
convention distorts the picture which the epics, studied in chro- 
nological sequence, would otherwise present ; nevertheless, with 
the passing of time a change of viewpoint is discernible. Al- 
though the epics of the period of decadence make much of epic 
externals, and assemble and heap up the epic motifs of the pre- 
ceding literary period, they introduce the brother's son with 
increasing frequency, as though there were a fading of the dis- 
tinction between the mother's and the father's kin, and there is 
a growing irregularity in the use of relationship terms. The 
most concise evidence of an unconsciously shifting viewpoint is 
afforded us when it is possible to compare earlier with later 
versions in the historical development of one and the same epic. 
Lingering as a sentimental custom long after its basis in the 
social structure had passed away, the avunculate continued into 
the medieval period until finally obliterated by the paternal 
principle and the disappearance of the distinction between the 
maternal and paternal kin. 

It remains a problem for the broadest investigation to deter- 
mine to how remote a period this matrilineal stage should be 
assigned. Whether such survivals as have been mentioned go 
back to a common Indo-European period, or whether, as the 
philologists would have us believe, they result solely from the 
contraction of matrilineal tendencies from the pre-Indo-European 
population of Europe, cannot as yet be asserted with finality. 
But these are not mutually exclusive alternatives, and it is quite 
possible that surviving matrilineal tendencies among the Indo- 
Europeans were reinforced by contact with matrilineal aborigines. 

issCf. Farnsworth: Op. ext., 199. 



174 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



APPENDIX 

MEDIEVAL GERMAN EPICAL POEMS 

Alexander. 

By Pfaffe Lamprecht, ed. by K. Kinzel, Halle, 1884. 

(a) Strassburger Alexander. 
7302 verses. 

(b) Vorauer Alexander. 
1533 verses. 

Alexanderlied. 

By Rudolph von Ems, ed. by V. Junkt, Beitrage zur Geschichte d. d. 
Sprache und Lit., XXIX, 369-470. 
Alexanderlied. 

By Ulrich von Eschenbaeh, ed. by Wendelin Toischer, Tubingen, 1888. 

Stuttgart Lit, Verein, Vol. 183. 
30,100 verses. 
Alexius. 

By Konrad von Wiirzburg, ed. by R. Henczynski, Berlin, 1898. Acta 

Germanica, VI, 1. 
1413 verses. 
Alpharts Tod. 

Ed. by Ernst Martin, Berlin, 1866. Deutsches Heldenbuch, Vol. 2. 
1865 verses. 
Annolied. 

Ed. by M. Rodiger, Mon. Germ., Deutsche ChroniJcen, Vol. 1, Pt. 2. 

Hannover, 1895. 
878 verses. 
Antelan. 

Ed. by W. Scherer, Zeitschrift f. d. Altertum, Vol. 15, 140 ff. 

132 verses. 
Apollonius von Tyrland. 

By Heinrich von Xeustadt, ed. by S. Singer, Berlin, 1906. Deutsche 
Texte des Mittelalters, Vol. 7. 

20,644 verses. 
Der arme Heinrich, see under H. 
Athis unci Prophilias. 

Ed. by W. Grimm, Kleine Schriften, Vol. 3, 212 ff. Berlin, 1883. 

1401 verses. 
Barlaam und Josaphat. 

By Rudolph von Ems, ed. by F. Pfeiffer, Leipzig, 1843. Dichtungen des 
Mittelalters, Vol. 3. 

16,184 verses. 



1922] Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 175 



BlTEROLF imd DlETLEIB. 

Ed. by Oskar Janicke, Berlin, 1866. Deutsches Heldenbuch, Vol. 1. 
13,500 verses. 

Der Crane. 

By Berthold von Holle, ed. by K. Bartsch, Niirnberg, 1858. 
4919 verses. 

Daniel von Dem Bluhenden Tal. 

By Der Strieker, ed. by Gr. Kosenhagen, Breslau, 1894. Germ. Abhandl.. 

Vol. 9. 
8422 verses. 

Darifant. 

By Berthold von Holle, ed. by K. Bartsch, Niirnberg, 1858. 
265 verses. 

Demantin. 

By Berthold von Holle, ed. by K. Bartsch, Tubingen, 1875. Stuttgart 

Lit. Verein, Vol. 123. 
11,761 verses. 

Dietrich und Wenzelan. 

Ed. by Julius Zupitza, Berlin, 1870. Deutsches Heldenbuch, Vol. 5. 
510 verses. 

Dietrichs Flucht. 

Ed. by Ernst Martin, Berlin, 1866. Deutsches Heldenbuch, Vol. 2. 
10,152 verses. 

Eckenlied. 

Ed. by Julius Zupitza, Berlin, 1870. Deutsches Heldenbuch, Vol. 5. 
3178 verses. 

Eneide. 

By Heinrich von Veldeke, ed. by Otto Behagel, Heilbronn, 1882. 
13,528 verses. 

Engelhard. 

By Konrad von Wiirzburg, ed. by M. Haupt, Leipzig, 1890. 
6504 verses. 

Eraclius. 

By Otte, ed. by H. Graef, Strassburg, 1883. Quell en u. Forschungen. 

' Vol. 50. 
5392 verses. 
Erec. 

By Hartmann von Aue, ed. by M. Haupt, Leipzig, 1871. 
10,135 verses. 
Ermenrichs Tod. 

Ed. by Th. Abeling, Teutonia, Heft. 7, Supplement, 57 ff., Leipzig, 1909. 
95 verses. 
Ernst, see Herzog Ernst. 



176 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



Flore und Blanscheplur. 

By Konrad Fleck, ed. by E. Sommer, Quedlenburg and Leipzig, 1846. 
8006 verses. 

Flos und Blankeflos. 

Ed. by O. Decker, Eostock i. M., 1913. 
1488 verses. 

Fraxciskex Leben, see Sankt Fraxciskex Leben. 
Die gute Frau. 

Ed. by E. Sommer, Zeitschr. f. d. Altertum, II, 385-481, Leipzig, 1841. 
3058 verses. 

Frauendiexst. 

By Ulrieh von Lichtenstein, ed. by E. Bechstein, Leipzig, 1888. 
18,962 verses. 

Friedrich von Schwaben. 

Ed. by M. H. Jellinek, Deutsche Texte des MittelaUers, Berlin, 1904, 

Vol. 1. 
8079 verses. 

Garel von Dem Bluhexdex Tal. 

By Der Pleier, ed. by M. Walz, Freiburg i. B., 1892. 
21,310 verses. 

Gauriel vox Muntabel or Der Eitter mit dem Bock:. 
By Konrad von Stoffeln, ed. by F. Khull, Graz, 1885. 
4172 verses. 

Der gute Gerhart. 

By Eudolf von Ems, ed. by M. Haupt, Leipzig, 1840. 
6928 verses. 

Goldemar. 

Ed. by Julius Zupitza, Berlin, 1870. Deutsches Heldenbuch, Vol. 5. 
120 verses. 

Graf Eudolf. 

Ed. by W. Grimm, Gottingen, 1844. 
28 pp. of fragments. 

Gregoritjs. 

By Hartmann von Aue, ed. by Hermann Paul, Halle a. S., 1900. 
4006 verses. 

Die Gute Frau, see under F. 

Der Gute Gerhart, see under G. 

Gudrux, see under K. 

Die treue Hausfrau. 

By Herrand von Wildonie, ed. by K. F. Kummer, Wien, 1880. 
276 verses. 



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Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 



177 



Der arme Heinrich. 

By Hartmann von Aue, ed. by M. Haupt, Leipzig, 1881. 
1520 verses. 

Heinrich unci Kunigunde. 

By Ebernand von Erfurt, ed. by E. Bechstein, Quedlenburg and Leipzig, 

1860. 
4752 verses. 

Herzog Ernst. 

Ernst A. 325 verses ^| 

Ernst B. 6022 verses led. by Bartsch, Wien, 1869. 
Ernst C. 1157 verses] 

Ernst D. 5560 verses, ed. by F. G. v. d. Hagen and J. O. Biisching, 
Deutsche Gedichte des Mittelalters, Vol. 1. 

HlLDEBRANDSLIED. 

(a) ''Das ahd. Hildebrandslied, ' ' Miillenhoff and Scherer, Derikmaler, 
No. 2. 
68 verses. 

(6) ''Das jiingere Hildebrandslied," ed. by E. Steinmeyer, in Miillenhoff 
and Scherer, Derikmaler, Vol. 2, 26 ff. 
80 verses. 

Die Hochzeit. 

Ed. by A. Waag, Kleinere d. Gedichte, No. 9. Halle, 1890. 
1093 verses. 

Hurnen Seyfrid, see under S. 

Der Jungere Titurel, see under T. 

Iwein. 

By Hartmann von Aue, ed. by G. F. Benecke and K. Lachmann, Berlin, 

1877. 
8166 verses. 

Kaiserchronik. 

Ed. by E. Schroder, Mon. Germ., Deutsche ChroniTcen, Vol. 1, Pt. 1. 

Hannover, 1895. 
17,230-800-483 verses. 

Karl der Grosse. 

By Strieker, ed. by Karl Bartsch, Quedlenburg and Leipzig, 1857. 
12,205 verses. 

Karl Meinet. 

Ed. by A. v. Keller, Stuttgart, 1858. Stuttgart Lit. Verein, XLV. 
35,754 verses. 

Die Klage. 

Ed. by Karl Bartsch, Leipzig, 1875. 
4360 verses. 



178 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



Konig Bother, 

Ed. by H. Eiickert, Dichtungen des Mittelalters, 1. Leipzig, 1872. 

5202 verses. 
Kreutzfahrt, see under Ludwig. 
Die Krone der Abenteuer. 

By Heinrich von Tiirlin, ed. by G. H. F. Scholl, Stuttgart Lit. Verein, 
Vol. 27. Stuttgart, 1852. 

30,038 verses. 

KUDRUN. 

Ed. by Karl Bartsch, Leipzig, 1867. 
6820 verses. 
Lanzelet. 

By Ulrich von Zatzighoven, ed. by K. A. Halm, Frankfurt a. M., 1845. 

9444 verses. 
Laurin und Walberan. 

Ed. by Oskar Janicke, Berlin, 1866. Deutsches Helderibuch, Vol. 1. 

3146 verses. 
Liet von Troye. 

By Herbert von Fritslar, ed. by G. K. Frommann, Quedlenburg and 

Leipzig, 1837. 
18,458 verses. 
Lohengrin. 

Ed. by H. Eiickert, Quedlenburg and Leipzig, 1858. 
7670 verses. 

LORENGEL. 

Ed. by W. Scherer, Zeitschr. f. D. Altertum, Vol. 15, 181 ff. 
2070 verses. 

Ludwigs des Frommen Kreutzfahrt. 

Ed. by F. H. v. d. Hagen, Leipzig, 1854. 
8184 verses. 

Mai und Beaflor. 

By Pleier?, ed. by F. Pfeiffer, Leipzig, 1848. 
9638 verses. 

Das Meerwunder. 

Ed. by v. d. Hagen and Busching, Deutsche Gedichte des Mittelalters, 

Vol. 11, 222 ff. Berlin, 1820. 
372 verses. 

Meier Helmbrecht. 

By Wernher der Gartenaere, ed. by Fr. Panzer, Halle a. S., 1902. 
1934 verses. 

Meleranz. 

By Der Pleier, ed. by K. Bartsch, Stuttgart, 1861, Stutt. Lit. Verein. 
12,840 verses. 



1922] 



Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 179 



Merlin. 

By Albrecht von Scharfenberg, ed. by F. Panzer, Tiibingen, 1902. 

Stuttgart Lit. Verein, Vol. 227. 
1869 verses. 
Moriz von Craon. 

By Ethv. Schroder, Berlin, 1894. In Zwei altd. Eittermaeren. 
1784 verses. 

MUSPILLI. 

Ed. by E. Steinmeyer, Miillenhoff und Scherer, Denkm'dler, Vol. 1, No. 

in. 

103 verses. 

Das NlBELUNGENLIED. 

Ed. by K. Bartsch, Leipzig, 1866. 

19,676 verses. 
Orendel. 

Ed. by A. E. Berger, Bonn, 1888. 

3895 verses. 
Ortnit. 

(a) " Ortnit/' ed. by Arthur Amelung, Berlin, 1871. Deutsches Helden- 
hucJi, Vol. 3. 
2388 verses. 

(6) "Ortnit C," ed. by Oskar Janicke, Berlin, 1873. Deutsches Helden- 
ouch, Vol. 4. 
267 verses. 
Sant Oswaldes Leben. 

Ed. by Ludwig Ettmiiller, Zurich, 1835. 

3470 verses. 
Wiener Oswald. 

Ed. by Geo. Baesecke, Heidelberg, 1912. 

1465 verses. 
Pantaleon. 

By Konrad von Wiirzburg, ed. by M. Haupt, Zeitschr. f. d. Altertum, 
Vol. 6, 193 ff. 

2158 verses. 
Partonopier und Meliur. 

By Konrad von Wiirzburg, ed. by K. Bartsch, Wien, 1871. 

21,784 verses. 
Parzival. 

By Wolfram von Eschenbach, ed. by K. Bartsch, Leipzig, 1875. 
24,812 verses. 
Peter Diemringer von Staufenberg. 

By Egenold von Staufenberg, ed. by Edw. Schroder, Berlin, 1894. In 

Zwei Altd. 'Eittermaeren. 
1178 verses. 



180 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



Pyramus und Thisbe. 

Ed. by M. Haupt, Zeitsehr. f. d. Altertum, Vol. 6, 504 ff. Leipzig, 1848. 

488 verses. 
Eabenschlacht. 

Ed. by Ernst Martin, Berlin, 1866. Deutsches Heldenbuch, Vol. 2. 

6840 verses. 
Eeinfried von Braunschweig. 

Ed. by K. Bartsch, Tubingen, 1871. Stuttgart Lit. Verein, Vol. 109. 

27,627 verses. 
Der Hitter mit dem Bock, see under Gauriel. 

EOLANDSLIED. 

By Pfaffe Konrad, ed. by K. Bartsch, Leipzig, 1874. Deutsches Dich- 

tungen des Mittelalters, Vol. 3. 
9094 verses. 

EOSENGARTEN. 

(a) "Eos. A," 1560 verses" 
(6) "Eos. D," 2532 verses 

(c) "Eos. D 1 ," 890 verses }.ed. by Geo. Holz, Halle a. S., 1 

(d) "Eos. D 2 ," 408 verses " 

(e) "Eos. F, " 452 verses 
Eother, see under Konig Eother. 
Eudolf, see under Graf Eudolf. # 

EUODLIEB. 

Ed. by F. Seiler, Halle, 1882. 

2328 verses. 
Salman und Morolf. 

Ed. by Fr. Vogt, Halle, 1880. 

3915 verses. 
Sankt Francisken Leben. 

By Lamprecht von Eegensburg, ed. by K. Weinhold, Paderborn, 1880. 

5049 verses. 
Sant Oswaldes Leben, see under O. 
Der Schwanritter. 

By Konrad von Wiirzburg, ed. by F. Eoth, Frankfurt a. M., 1861. 

1358 verses. 
Seifrid De Ardemont. 

By Albrecht von Scharfenberg, ed. by F. Panzer, Tubingen, 1902. 
Stuttgart Lit. Verein, Vol. 227. 

3633 verses. 

HUERNEN SEYFRID. 

Ed. by v. d. Hagen and Biisching, Deutsche Gedichte des Mittelalters, 

Vol. 2. 
716 verses. 



1922] 



Bell: The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic 



181 



SlGENOT. 

Ed. by Julius Zupitza, Berlin, 1870. Deutsches Heldenbuch, Vol. 5. 
572 verses. 

Silvester. 

By Konrad von Wurzburg, ed. by W. Grimm, Gottingen, 1841. 
5220 verses. 

Tandareis und Flordibel. 

By Der Pleier, ed. by F. Khull, Graz, 1885. 
18,339 verses. 

TlTUREL. 

By Wolfram von Eschenbach, ed. by K. Bartsch, Leipzig, 1875. With 

Parzival. 
952 verses. 

Der jiingere Titurel. 

By Albrecht von Scharfenberg, ed. by K. A. Halm, Quedlenburg and 

Leipzig, 1842. 
43,449 verses. 

Tochter Syon. 

By Lamprecht von Eegensburg, ed. by K. Weinhold, Paderborn, 1880. 
4312 verses. 

Die treue Hausfrau, see under H. 

Tristan. 

(a) ' ' Tristrant. " By Eilhart von Oberge, ed. by F. Lichtenstein, 

Strassburg, 1877. 
9524 verses. 

(b) By Gottfried von Strassburg, ed. by E. Bechstein, Leipzig, 1890. 
19,552 verses. 

(c) By Ulrich von Tiirheim, ed. by H. F. Massmann, Leipzig, 1843, in 

Gottfried von Strassburg, Tristan mid Isolt, 492-590. 
3728 verses. 

(d) By Heinrieh von Freiberg, ed. by Bechstein, Leipzig, 1877. 
6890 verses. 

Trojanischer Krieg. 

By Konrad von Wurzburg, ed. by A. von Keller, Stuttgart, 1858. Stutt- 
gart Lit. Verein, Vol. 44. 

Der Turnei von Nantheiz. 

By Konrad von Wurzburg, ed. by K. Bartsch, Wien, 1871. Bound with 

Partonopier. 
1156 verses. 

Valentin und Namelos. 

Ed. by W. Seelmann, Niederd. Derikmaler, IV, Norden and Leipzig, 1884. 
• 2646 verses. 



182 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 10 



Virginal. 

By Albrecht von Kemenaten, ed. by Julius Zupitza, Berlin, 1870. 

Deutsches Heldenbuch, Vol. 5. 
14,261 verses. 
Waltarius. 

By Ekkehard, ed. by H. Althof, Leipzig, 1899-1905. 

1456 verses. 
Wiener Oswald, see under O. 
Wig alois. 

By Wirnt von Gravenberg, ed. by F. Pfeiffer, Leipzig, 1847. 
11,708 verses. 

WlGAMUR. 

Ed. by v. d. Hagen und Biisching, Deutsche Gedichte des Mittelalters, 

Vol. 1. 
6106 verses. 

WlLHELM VON OSTERREICH. 

Ed. by E. Eegel, Deutsche Texte des Mittelalters, Vol. 3. Berlin, 1906. 
19,585 verses. 

WlLHELM VON WENDEN. 

By Ulrich von Eschenbach, ed. by E. Toischer, Prag, 1876. 
7940 verses. 

WlLLEHALM. 

By Wolfram von Eschenbach, ed. by K. Lachman, in Wolfram von 

Eschenbach, Berlin, 1891. 
13,990 verses. 

WlLLEHALM. 

By Ulrich von dem Tiirlin, ed. by S. Singer, Prag, 1893. 
9695 verses. 

WlLLEHALM VON OrLENS. 

By Eudolph von Ems, ed. by V. Junk, Deutsche Texte des Mittelalters, 

Vol. 2, Berlin, 1905. 
15,689 verses. 

WOLFDIETRICH. 

(a) "Wolfd. A," ed. by A. Amelung, Berlin, 1871. Deutsches Helden- 
buch, Vol. 3. 

2424 verses. 
(/;) "Wolfd. B," ed. by Oskar Janicke, idem. 

3726 verses. 

(c) "Wolfd. C," ed. by Oskar Janicke, Berlin, 1873. Ibid., Vol. 4. 

289 verses. 

(d) "Wolfd. D," ed. by Oskar Janicke, idem. 
2610 verses. 



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